The date is on page one
Every report you issue has a recommended date for the next inspection. For rented homes it's often five years. For a shop or a small office it depends on what your inspector recommends. That date is sitting in a folder of PDFs, and when it comes round, the landlord searches for an electrician and books whoever answers first.
You did the last inspection. You know the property, the board, the access. You would have been the obvious choice if they'd remembered you.
Why nobody tracks the dates
Certification software generates the report and stores it. It usually isn't built to run a reminder campaign years later, and the contact details on file might be for a tenant, a managing agent or a landlord who has since sold. Job software records the visit but not the next due date in any structured way.
So the dates never make it into a list anyone looks at. Some firms keep a spreadsheet for their biggest landlord clients, and everyone else is forgotten.
| Client type | Who should get the reminder |
|---|---|
| Private landlord | The landlord, or their agent if managed |
| Letting agent | The agent, with a list of their properties due |
| Small commercial | Whoever handles premises or facilities |
| Homeowner | Only if they asked to be reminded |
The work walking out the door
Repeat inspections are some of the easiest work to win: known property, known client, no marketing cost. Losing them is quiet, because you never see the enquiry you didn't get. Agents who manage many properties will also value a firm that tells them what's coming up, and drift towards one that does.
There's a smaller cost too: when a landlord does come back, it's in a rush because the date has passed, which squeezes your diary.
The due-date register we build
- Date extraction: we read the next inspection date, address and client from each issued report, going back through your archive as well as new ones.
- Contact check: each record is matched to the current contact in your job or accounts software, and the office confirms anything unclear, such as a property that has changed agent.
- Consent: homeowners and landlords are only reminded if they agreed to it, and your privacy wording sets out how.
- Reminders: at the lead time you choose, the client gets an email or text in your wording with a link to book. Agents get one message listing all their properties due.
- Booking: the link offers slots from your diary, or a callback request if you prefer to arrange inspections by phone.
- Follow-up list: clients who don't respond are listed for the office to ring, with the last report attached.
Repeat work that arrives on its own
The office gets a steady list of inspections coming due instead of relying on clients remembering. Agents hear from you before their compliance deadline rather than after. And the old archive, which was only ever a storage cost, becomes a list of warm leads.
It also changes how you talk to agents. Instead of waiting for their compliance team to send a batch of urgent requests, you can send each agent a short list every month of their properties falling due, with the last report attached. That is the kind of small, regular service that keeps a firm on an agent's preferred list.
Are you in this position?
- You have years of EICRs but no list of when they fall due.
- Past clients have used another firm for their next inspection.
- Agents book you in a rush when a deadline has already passed.
- Reminders, if any, go only to a handful of bigger clients.
- Contact details on old reports are out of date.