Half of all tenant property maintenance cases are first reported outside standard office hours, according to new analysis of summer rental maintenance activity from AI-powered maintenance platform Lettie.
The findings draw on Lettie's property maintenance database, which supports more than 10,000 tenants, with the analysis covering cases created between 1 June and 31 August 2026. Exactly 50% of maintenance cases were first logged outside Monday-to-Friday, 9am-to-5pm working hours, while 17.4% arrived at weekends.
Hot-water faults lead out-of-hours surge
The out-of-hours pattern was particularly pronounced for heating and hot-water issues. Of all heating and hot-water cases, 73.1% were first reported outside standard working hours. For cases involving an explicit loss or disruption of hot water specifically, that figure rose to 73.7%.
Higher-priority faults followed a similar pattern. Among cases carrying a high or emergency label, 57.5% were first reported outside standard weekday hours, suggesting that the most time-sensitive problems are among those least likely to reach a property manager during conventional working hours.
"Anyone working in property management knows that maintenance does not stop at 5pm, but the scale of the out-of-hours demand is striking," said Connor Hawkins, chief solutions officer at Lettie.
"When half of maintenance cases are first reported outside the traditional working day — and almost three-quarters of hot-water disruptions arrive out of hours — this cannot really be treated as an occasional exception.
"For landlords and letting agents, the challenge is having an effective way to capture the problem, understand its urgency and decide what needs to happen next, regardless of when the tenant reports it."
Plumbing dominates the repair list
Plumbing and drainage was the most common individual maintenance category over the summer, accounting for 21.6% of all cases. It was followed by doors, windows and access at 12.8%, heating and hot water at 11.9%, and appliances and ventilation at 11.5%.
Damp and building fabric represented 9.2% of cases, while fittings and furniture and electrical and lighting each accounted for 8.7%. Combined, plumbing and drainage plus heating and hot water made up 33.5% of all cases reported across the period, issues that, in most cases, directly affect a tenant's day-to-day use of the property.
Recurring problems add to the challenge
The analysis also found that at least 12.4% of cases contained evidence of a previous report, recurring symptoms, a prior repair attempt or an unresolved follow-up. The proportion was higher in specific categories: 26.3% of electrical and lighting cases showed evidence of a previous or recurring concern, alongside 25.0% of damp and building-fabric cases. For heating and hot water the figure was 15.4%, while 21.1% of cases involving hot-water disruption specifically showed signs of a prior or recurring issue.
Hawkins added: "The data also shows why maintenance is about more than simply receiving a message and arranging a repair. A meaningful proportion of issues have some previous history attached to them. Understanding whether something has happened before, whether an earlier repair was attempted or whether symptoms are recurring can materially affect what the right next step should be.
"As property portfolios become larger, maintaining that context becomes increasingly important."
