Tenant Sent a Repair List – How I Handled Nine Jobs for £99 Without a Letting Agent

A tenant repair request landed in my inbox while I was abroad. My Bristol tenants had sent me a list of nine items – and I was in Colombia.

That is the reality of self-managing a rental property from a distance, and honestly it is one of the more instructive things I have done as a landlord. Not because it went wrong, but because it went right, and the way it went right tells you quite a lot about what actually matters when you are handling a tenant repair request without a letting agent.

The list had come in gradually, the way these things do. Tenants are often reluctant to bother you, so small things accumulate until someone sensible decides to write them all down. The lead tenant did exactly that: a numbered list of nine items including a wobbly coffee table, a broken bed beam, a dryer that had stopped working, a loose kitchen spotlight, a wardrobe shelf, a bathroom cabinet door, a washing machine making a noise, a door handle, and a crack in the bathtub cover. Clear, reasonable, practical. The kind of list a good tenant writes.

Handling a tenant repair request without a letting agent is exactly the kind of thing that sounds complicated until you have a system for it. My first move was to post the job on Airtasker. I set a budget of £250 for the lot – probably on the low side for nine items, but I wanted to see what came back. The listing got 20 views. One offer arrived, at £500, with a pitch that read “Hi my offer includes exceptional service.” I did not accept it. My honest assessment of Airtasker is that it works well in London, where there are enough registered taskers to create real competition and drive prices down. Outside London, the pool thins out, and the one person who bothers to bid knows they have no competition. One offer at double my budget told me everything I needed to know.

So I went to Google. I searched for handymen in Bristol, looked at reviews carefully, and found someone with a 4.9 star rating across a solid number of reviews. When you are finding tradespeople as a landlord without an agent’s contacts book behind you, this is the work – reading reviews properly, not just clocking the number. I messaged him the same day with the full list and the property address.

He asked for photos. I sent them. He came back with a quote of £80 for two hours plus parts, no VAT, and offered a date the following week. I said yes, pencilled in the date, then contacted my tenants to check someone could be home to let him in and show him around. The lead tenant confirmed she would stay in and work from home that day.

I was managing all of this remotely, six hours behind, catching messages in the early morning and responding across a time difference. On the day itself I missed the tenant’s message asking what time to expect him – she had sent it while I was still asleep. By the time I picked it up he was already there and she had it under control.

What followed was one of the more satisfying sequences of messages I have received as a landlord. He worked through the list and sent a photo of each completed job as he went. Tumble dryer repaired. Coffee table repaired. Bed repaired. Wardrobe shelf repaired. Kitchen plinth repaired. Each one captioned, each one documented. He messaged when he was finished and sent the invoice the same day: £99 all in.

I paid him the following day.

The total cost to resolve nine repair items on a tenant repair request, found via Google, managed remotely from South America, with a tenant as the on-the-ground coordinator, was £99. No letting agent. No callout from a property management company. No markup.

A few things worth pulling out of this for anyone self-managing landlord repairs:

Google reviews are useful but only if you read them properly. A 4.9 across a decent number of reviews tells you something real. A 5.0 across 15 reviews on a task platform, with a pitch that says nothing, tells you very little.

Platforms like Airtasker are worth knowing about, but calibrate your expectations by location. In a city with a deep pool of tradespeople they can work well. Outside London, at least in my experience, the market is thin enough that you may get one offer at double your budget and nothing else. Go to Google first if you are outside a major city.

Tenants who write clear lists are an asset. I did not have to chase for information, argue about scope, or interpret vague descriptions. The list was specific and numbered, which made it straightforward to pass directly to the tradesperson. The kind of tenant who writes a clear, reasonable repair list is exactly the kind you find when you do your own tenant selection. If your tenants report issues clearly, tell them you appreciate it.

A good tenant relationship pays off in practical ways. The lead tenant stayed home voluntarily, coordinated access on the day, and sent me updates without being asked to do more than let him in. That kind of dynamic does not happen by accident. It comes from communicating respectfully, responding to issues promptly, and not making people feel like a nuisance for flagging problems.

A tradesperson who sends photo evidence of every job without being asked is worth keeping. He is now saved in my contacts.