Maintenance request coordination
The tenant or site that reported it, the landlord or client who pays for it and the contractor who has to turn up make a repair three conversations that never line up. An AI agent can coordinate all three and keep the job moving, so your property managers and helpdesk coordinators spend their day on repairs that need a decision.
The role in brief
Logs each repair report, gathers what a contractor needs, seeks approval within your limits, instructs the contractor and updates whoever reported it.
Your repairs or helpdesk system, such as Fixflo or Joblogic, your property or contract records and the maintenance inbox.
The property manager or helpdesk coordinator. Emergencies, spending above the agreed limit, disputes over who pays and refused access all go to them.
Days from report to instruction, jobs waiting and on whom, and reports complete at first instruction.
Three people to keep informed, one person doing it
In a letting agency the repairs inbox belongs to a property manager with a portfolio. In a facilities business a helpdesk coordinator logs reactive jobs in the CAFM system and schedules engineers and subcontractors. Both spend the day between the person who reported the fault, the one who pays for it and the one who has to attend, asking each what the others have said.
Reports with half the facts
"The boiler is broken" is not enough to send an engineer, who needs to know which boiler, what the display shows, whether there is any hot water and when someone will be in. A person has to go back and ask, and the job waits while they do.
Approval slower than the repair
A managing agent can usually spend up to a limit set in its management agreement, and needs the landlord's yes above it. In a facilities contract, work beyond what the monthly fee covers is usually quoted to the client. While that answer is chased the job sits with nobody, and the tenant rings again.
The emergency in the ordinary queue
A smell of gas, water coming through a ceiling or a front door that will not lock cannot wait behind a dripping tap. The Property Ombudsman's code expects its member agents in England to give tenants a way to report emergency repairs out of hours. Someone still has to recognise the emergency when it arrives.
From repair report to closed job
Here the AI worker does the logging, asking and chasing. Your people decide what is an emergency, what is spent and who pays, and your limits and contractor list are agreed with you before the build.
Report
Logs each report against the right property or site and asks the questions a contractor will need answered: what has failed, where, since when, photos, and when access is possible.
Anything on your emergency list, such as gas, flooding or an insecure property, and any report of damp or mould.
Approval
Checks the likely cost against the landlord's or client's limit. Under it, proposes a contractor from your list. Over it, sends the quote for approval and chases the reply.
Approval of any spend above the limit, the choice between quotes, and who pays.
Instruction
Sends the contractor a works order with the fault, the photos, the urgency and the occupier's contact details, then chases until a visit date is confirmed.
A property manager's confirmation, unless a standing instruction covers jobs under the limit, and any contractor not on your list.
Updates and close
Tells the occupier the visit date, chases the contractor for completion and the invoice, asks the occupier to confirm the fault is fixed, and closes the job on the record.
Refused or failed access, a repair the occupier says is not fixed, and an invoice above the approved figure.
Days from report to instruction
For each job, the days from the first report to a contractor being instructed, split by who it waited on. Reviewed with you each month.
Jobs waiting, and on whom
Open jobs that have not moved for longer than the days you set, listed by who holds each one: landlord, client, contractor or occupier.
Reports complete at first instruction
The share of jobs where the contractor had the fault, the photos and the access details in the first works order, with no question sent back.
Letting agents and property managers
Repair reports from Fixflo or the inbox, the landlord's limit from the management agreement and, in England, 24 hours' written notice before a visit.
Facilities management and cleaning
Reactive jobs logged in the CAFM system against each contract, engineers and subcontractors chased for dates, and quoted works sent to the client for approval.
Questions owners ask
What does it do when a tenant reports a smell of gas?
It does not treat it as a repair, book anything or judge the danger. It replies with the safety message you have approved, which for a gas smell is to call the National Gas Emergency Service, and alerts whoever is on call by your own procedure. From there a person runs it.
Can it approve a repair on the landlord's behalf?
No. It applies the limit written into your management agreement. Under it, the job goes to a contractor from your approved list once a property manager confirms, unless you give a standing instruction for routine jobs. Over it, the agent asks the landlord and chases the answer. It never spends money, and a person checks a new contractor's insurance first.
Can AI coordinate repair requests between tenants, contractors and landlords?
Yes, by email and through your repairs system. This role works in writing. Where a call is quicker, such as a contractor who has gone quiet or a tenant who has not answered about access, it tells the property manager who to ring and what to ask. The call stays with a person.
We already use Fixflo. What would an agent add?
Fixflo takes the report, holds the job and automates set steps. The agent works on what still lands on a property manager: the follow-up question to the tenant, the landlord who has not answered, the contractor who has not confirmed a date. Fixflo publishes an API, so the role can be scoped around it.