By sector
Letting agents and property managers
A managed tenancy is a machine for generating dated obligations. This section is about what that work costs an agency, and how to tell which parts of it actually need a person.
Five queues, all interrupting each other #
Every agency runs the same five queues at once.
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The front of the funnel
Portal enquiries, viewing requests, applications, references.
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Tenancy setup
Where one accepted offer becomes a deposit to protect, a right to rent check to evidence, certificates to gather and a move in date that will not move.
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The compliance diary
The only queue with legal deadlines attached.
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Maintenance
Which arrives at random and leaves a trail of three way messages between tenant, landlord and contractor.
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Money
Rent posted, arrears chased, landlord statements sent.
None of it is difficult. All of it is relentless, and all of it is small pieces of information moving between people who are not in the same system.
61%
Of lettings professionals say staff transfer, re-enter or duplicate information between systems during a tenancy
Property Industry Eye, 3 September 2026
17%
Use one main system to manage the work
Property Industry Eye, 3 September 2026
That is the shape of the problem: not volume, but the same fact typed three times.
How to tell which parts run on rules #
Take one job and ask three things about it.
- Does it start from a trigger you could describe to a new starter in a sentence, such as a certificate expiry or an enquiry arriving?
- Does it produce the same shape of output every time, such as a reminder, a record, a booking, a file in the right place?
- Would two competent people doing it on the same day produce the same result?
Three yeses means the job runs on rules, whoever is doing it today.
Plenty of agency work passes that test. Working out that a gas safety record expires in six weeks is a date calculation. Knowing which properties have no current electrical report is a query. What fails the test is anything with a judgement in it: whether this applicant is a risk, whether this repair is urgent enough to send someone tonight, whether this arrears case needs a phone call rather than a letter.
Why the deadlines matter more than the volume #
In most trades, admin that slips is embarrassing. In lettings, some of it is enforceable, which is why the compliance diary gets its own page.
The pressure is measurable at both ends of the day.
73%
Of lettings professionals report more administration since the new tenancy system began on 1 May 2026
Property Industry Eye, 3 September 2026
94.1%
Of calls placed to 3,047 UK agency numbers between 6pm and 9pm went unanswered
Property Industry Eye, 5 August 2026
Start with the queue that is hurting, or put a number on it first with the free tools.
Letting agents
Tenancies, maintenance, compliance dates and the enquiries that arrive at 9pm.
- Portal enquiries and viewings Where the hours go between an enquiry arriving and a viewing actually happening
- Referencing and tenancy setup Every document and deadline between an accepted offer and a tenant with keys
- Right to rent checks The 28 day window, follow-up checks, and who carries the penalty when an agent checks
- The compliance diary Every dated duty a managed tenancy creates, and where the diary usually fails
- Chasing safety certificates Why gas and electrical renewals eat a property manager week after week
- Deposit protection deadlines The 30 day clock, the prescribed information, and what a court can order if it slips
- Maintenance reporting What happens between a tenant reporting a repair and a contractor turning up
- Out of hours calls What really arrives in the evening, and what the non-emergencies cost the next morning
- Rent arrears chasing How arrears chasing runs in a small agency, and the rules that now sit behind it
- Property inspections Booking, notice, the report and the follow-up actions that outlast the visit
Where these numbers come from
- Property Industry Eye, Renters’ Rights Act piles more work on letting agents (Propoly survey) , read 19 September 2026 . Published 3 September 2026
- Property Industry Eye, Agents miss 94% of evening calls, study finds (InStep AI) , read 19 September 2026 . Published 5 August 2026
- Property Industry Eye, Complaints against agents surge by almost 50% , read 19 September 2026 . Published 12 June 2026
- MHCLG, No-fault evictions to end by May next year , read 19 September 2026 . Published 13 November 2025
Last checked 19 September 2026.
Our workings are on the methodology page .
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