How to Assign Estate Repairs to Contractors

The cost of a repair on an estate is rarely the price of the repair. It is the number of visits
it takes. A job that needs three attendances because the first person could not diagnose it, the
second did not bring the part, and the third turned out to be the wrong trade costs several
times the quoted figure and generates a complaint at every stage.

Almost all of that is decided at the point of assignment, before anyone travels.

Diagnose enough to choose the trade

The most expensive assignment error is sending the wrong trade, because it costs a full visit
and produces no progress.

Water coming through a ceiling is the classic. It could be plumbing, roofing, a blocked gutter,
a failed seal in a bathroom above, or condensation from a ventilation fault. Sending a plumber
because there is water is a guess with a one-in-five chance.

Where the cause is genuinely unclear, send someone to diagnose as a distinct job with a
distinct expectation. A diagnostic visit that produces a clear cause is a success. A repair
visit that produces a diagnosis is a failure that will be invoiced as a call-out.

Write a brief that answers the obvious questions

A useful brief takes two minutes and covers:

• Exactly where, including how to get in and who has access
• What is happening, in the reporter's words, plus a photograph
• When it happens, if it is intermittent — constantly, when it rains, when the heating runs
• What has already been tried, including previous repairs to the same thing
• Who to contact on site, with a number that will be answered

That last item prevents more wasted visits than everything else combined. A contractor who
arrives and cannot get in has cost you a visit and will usually charge for it.

Say what finished looks like

Agree the definition of done before work starts, not when the invoice arrives.

"Fix the gate" is ambiguous. "Gate closes and latches unaided from fully open, no scraping on
the ground, lock operable with the existing key" is checkable by someone who was not there.

This protects both sides. Contractors are generally happy to work to a clear standard; what they
object to is a vague brief followed by an argument about whether it was met.

Keep the history attached to the place

Before assigning, check what has been done to this item before. A door that has been adjusted
three times in a year does not need a fourth adjustment; it needs someone to look at why it
keeps moving.

This is only possible if your records are filed against locations or assets rather than only by
date. Without that, every repair starts from zero and the estate pays repeatedly for the
treatment of a symptom nobody has connected.

Decide the bounce rule in advance

Jobs will sometimes turn out to belong to a different trade. Decide now what happens then,
because deciding in the moment reliably produces a stalled job.

A workable rule: the contractor who attends reports what they found and what trade it needs,
and the estate reassigns it as a new job linked to the first. What must not happen is the
contractor passing it directly to someone else informally, because at that point nobody holds
it and it disappears.

Batch where geography allows

On a multi-block estate, several small jobs in one area are worth grouping into one visit. The
travel and set-up time usually dominates the work itself for minor repairs.

This requires keeping a short list of non-urgent jobs by location rather than dispatching each
one as it arrives. The saving is significant and the cost is a few days' delay on work that was
not urgent anyway.

Tell the resident who is coming and when

The resident who reported it should know the trade, the day, and roughly the time. Not because
they need to be there — often they do not — but because the alternative is a contractor
knocking unannounced and a second complaint about access.

Where access to a private area is needed, confirm it before dispatching rather than hoping. An
aborted visit for want of a phone call is the most avoidable cost on this whole list.