The short answer, in plain words
Yes, and your tenant does not need to install anything. In LetCompliance each tenant has their own portal link. They open it in their phone’s browser, choose Repairs, say what is wrong and where, add up to three photos and send it. The report lands in your tenant inbox with the date and time it arrived, and you answer it in the same thread, so the exchange stays with the property instead of being split between texts, emails and voicemails.
There is no password or account to create. The link opens only that tenant’s own tenancy, and you can switch it off.
When it matters: the Sunday evening photo
A tenant texts a photo of a brown patch spreading across the bathroom ceiling on a Sunday evening. You reply “will sort it”, ring a plumber on Monday, and the plumber cannot get in until Thursday. Six months later the tenant says the leak was reported in March and nothing happened. Your side of it now lives in a text thread on an old phone.
In any argument about a repair, the first question is when you were told, and the second is what you did about it. A channel that dates each report and each reply answers both without anyone reconstructing it.
How to set up repair reporting, whatever tool you use
- Give the tenant one way to report repairs and put it in writing at the start of the tenancy, with the move-in documents. Two or three channels means one of them gets missed
- Say what counts as an emergency, such as a leak through a ceiling, no heating in winter, no water or a smell of gas, and what the tenant should do first. For gas, that means the gas emergency line before anyone else
- Ask for a photo, the room and when it started.
- Acknowledge each report the same day where you can, with a realistic next step and a date, even if the step is “I am ringing the plumber tomorrow morning”
- Keep a short list of contractors by trade, with their insurance renewal and, for gas work, their Gas Safe number
- Close each job properly: tell the tenant it is done, keep the invoice and record the cost against the property, because repairs are an allowable expense on your tax return
Your options, compared honestly
Text messages, WhatsApp and email. Free, and every tenant already has them. But nothing ties a report to a property or shows how long a job has been open, and the photos sit in your personal phone gallery.
A letting agent. On full management the agent takes the calls, sends their contractors and deals with the tenant, which is real value if you cannot answer a phone during the day. It is paid as a share of the rent every month, whether anything breaks or not.
A standalone repair reporting tool. Several exist, many of them built for letting agents and block managers. If you look at one, check what it costs per property and whether the repair history sits with your rent and tenancy records or in yet another login.
Landlord software with a tenant portal. The tenant reports into the same system that holds the tenancy, the rent and the certificates, so a repair is seen next to everything else about that home. This is where LetCompliance sits.
How it works in LetCompliance
For the tenant. The portal opens on Home, with tabs for Rent, Repairs, Messages, Documents, Inspections, Pets, Meter readings and Moving out. On Repairs they describe the problem, attach up to three photos and follow its progress. Right to Rent copies are never shown in the portal.
For you. Each report arrives in the tenant inbox. If a tenant rings instead, log the repair yourself so it is dated and kept with the rest. Every repair carries a response clock: 24 hours for an emergency, 7 days for urgent and 14 days for routine, so the inbox shows which jobs are close to their date.
Triage. An AI reading of the report suggests the priority, the trade, who is probably responsible and a short brief for the contractor. It is only a suggestion: nothing changes until you apply it.
Sending the job out. Pick a contractor from your directory and LetCompliance emails them a work order with the problem, the priority, the date it should be done by and the tenant’s contact details, plus a link with no login where they send a quote and update the job. You approve the quote, and the work and its cost stay in the property’s history. The directory holds each contractor’s trades, the properties they cover, their Gas Safe number, competent person scheme, insurance expiry and your own rating.
Getting tenants onto it. Send a portal link from the Tenants page, or send links in bulk to every tenant who has not had one: 20 a click, up to 30 per account a day.
What it costs. The portal, the tenant inbox, the response clocks and triage come with every plan, the free plan included for one property. The contractor directory and work orders open on the trial and on paid plans: Single at £7.99 a month for one property, Solo at £14.99 for up to 3 and Portfolio at £19 for up to 10, with larger plans above that.
What the law says
Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (legislation.gov.uk, read 20 October 2026) makes the landlord of a short lease responsible for keeping the structure and exterior in repair, along with the installations for water, gas, electricity and sanitation, and those for space heating and heating water. GOV.UK’s “Private renting: repairs” page (read 20 October 2026) lists the same areas from the tenant’s side, names gas appliances and electrical wiring among them, and tells tenants to keep paying rent while they wait for a repair.
Awaab’s Law sets deadlines for dealing with damp, mould and other hazards. It has applied to social housing since October 2025. For private landlords it is still a proposal: the GOV.UK consultation “Extending Awaab’s Law to private rented tenancies and to licences”, published 9 October 2026 and open until 18 December 2026, asks how it should apply. It puts the social housing timescales forward as a starting point, such as emergency hazards made safe within 24 hours and significant hazards investigated within 10 working days, and asks whether shorter or longer times would be right. Of the response clocks in LetCompliance, only the emergency one matches a figure in the consultation; the urgent clock of 7 days and the routine clock of 14 days are LetCompliance’s own guide. None of them is a legal deadline for a private landlord today.
Common mistakes
- Answering a repair by text and logging nothing, so the only record is on one phone
- Promising “as soon as possible” with no date, which is the phrase tenants quote back later
- Treating damp and mould as a lifestyle problem before anyone has looked for a leak, a failed extractor fan or a cold wall
- Sending a contractor round without agreeing a time with the tenant
- Paying the invoice and forgetting to record it against the property, so the cost never reaches your tax return
Does my tenant need to download an app to report a repair?
No. The LetCompliance portal is a web page that opens from a link in the tenant’s phone browser. They can save it to their home screen, but there is nothing to install and no password to remember. You need their email address to send them the link.
Can I log a repair my tenant reported by phone?
Yes. Add it from the tenant inbox yourself. It is dated when you log it and goes through the same clock, triage and contractor steps as one the tenant sent.
Does Awaab’s Law apply to private landlords?
Not yet. It applies to social housing, and the government is consulting until 18 December 2026 on extending it to private tenancies. Regulations would have to be made before a private landlord is bound by its timescales.
What LetCompliance does not do here
- It does not take calls or run an out-of-hours line. A report sent at midnight waits for you to read it, so tell tenants who to ring in a real emergency
- It does not supply contractors. The directory is your own list, and the Gas Safe numbers, scheme memberships and insurance dates in it are the ones you enter, not checked by LetCompliance
- The triage is a suggestion, not legal advice on who is responsible for a repair
- A report carries up to three photos; videos cannot be uploaded
