A letter of claim and a scramble for records
A letter arrives from a solicitor on behalf of a tenant, claiming disrepair in their home over several years. Your legal or disrepair team needs to respond within the timescales that apply. To do that they need every repairs job at the address, every contact from the tenant, inspection reports, photos, access attempts and any correspondence. These are in the repairs system, the housing management system, the contact centre system, the compliance system and people's inboxes.
The team spends days gathering records, and still is not sure the picture is complete. Meanwhile the repairs that the claim identifies need to be inspected and done.
Why evidence is so slow to gather
- Records for one home are spread across several systems.
- Contacts about repairs are logged in different ways by different teams.
- No-access attempts are recorded by contractors and not always shared.
- Photos from inspections sit on devices or in email.
- Deadlines are tracked by hand in a spreadsheet of claims.
Many organisations have the records. They just cannot assemble them quickly or be sure they have everything.
What slow evidence gathering costs
Missed or late responses can have consequences your advisers can explain. Incomplete records make it harder to show what was actually done. Legal costs rise with the time spent. And the repairs behind the claim, which matter most to the household, can get lost in the process.
The claim file we build
- Each claim is logged with the property, tenant, claim date, solicitor and the deadlines your legal team or advisers set.
- All records for the property over the relevant period are pulled into one chronology: repairs jobs and their outcomes, contacts, inspections, access attempts, photos and complaints.
- Records from each system are shown with their source, so the team knows what they are looking at and where it came from.
- Gaps, such as a period with no records or jobs without completion notes, are flagged for the team to investigate.
- An inspection of the property can be booked and recorded on a tablet, with photos, and added to the file.
- Repairs identified by the inspection are raised as jobs and tracked to completion, separately from the legal process.
- Steps and deadlines are tracked with reminders, and the file can be exported for your solicitors in the format they prefer.
| Record | Source | In the claim file |
|---|---|---|
| Repairs jobs | Repairs system | Chronology with outcomes |
| Tenant contacts | Housing and contact centre systems | Chronology with summaries |
| Access attempts | Contractor records | Chronology |
| Inspections and photos | Surveyors' devices | Attached with dates |
| Deadlines | Your legal team | Tracked with reminders |
Your response to any claim, and the protocol steps you follow, are for your legal team and advisers. We build the evidence file; we do not give legal advice.
What your disrepair team gains
When a claim arrives, the chronology for the property is assembled from the systems rather than gathered by hand. The team can see gaps early and look for what is missing. Deadlines are tracked. Repairs identified are done and recorded. And patterns across claims, such as property types or repair categories that recur, become visible for your asset and repairs teams to act on.
Is this your disrepair process?
- Gathering records for a claim takes days.
- Records for one property are spread across several systems.
- You are not always sure the evidence is complete.
- Claim deadlines are tracked on a spreadsheet.
- Repairs identified during claims are not always tracked to completion.