Answer Tenant Questions and Repair Requests on WhatsApp
This recipe answers the questions tenants send about properties you manage or let: who pays for a repair, air conditioning servicing, when the deposit comes back, how to give notice and how to renew. It answers from the tenancy terms you upload for each property, logs repair requests in your property management software, and passes anything disputed to you. Part of the property agent workflows.
What happens today
A tenant messages at 8pm: “The air conditioning isn’t cooling. Do I pay for the repair or does the landlord?”. Another asks when the deposit comes back after they move out. A third wants to know if the lease can be renewed for one year. Each answer is in a tenancy agreement on your laptop, and each tenant expects a reply tonight.
These questions arrive after work, about the same things every time, and they take your evenings.
The flow that works
- AeroChat checks the tenant is messaging from the phone number on the tenancy, and finds the tenancy in your property management system.
- It answers from that property’s tenancy terms in the knowledge base: repair responsibility, the minor repair limit, air conditioning servicing, notice period and the deposit return process.
- For a repair, it collects what is wrong, photos and when someone is home, creates a maintenance request in your property management system and tells you.
- For a renewal, it notes the request and the length the tenant wants on the tenancy, and tells you. You discuss terms with the landlord.
- Disputes about deductions, rent or responsibility go to you with the details collected.
Leaks, no water, electrical faults and anything that puts someone at risk skip the log and go to you straight away.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a tenant messages about their tenancy, follow these steps.
- Check that they are messaging from the phone number on their tenancy in our property management system, and find the property. If the number does not match, ask for the property address and their name, and if it still does not match, hand the conversation to me.
- Answer questions about repairs, air conditioning servicing, notice periods, renewals and the deposit from that property’s tenancy terms in the knowledge base. Example: the tenant pays for minor repairs up to US$200 each, and services the air conditioning every three months (example terms, use the property’s own terms).
- For a repair, ask what is wrong, where in the property, and for a photo, and when someone will be home. Create a maintenance request in our property management system with the property, tenant, problem and photo, and notify me. Tell the tenant I will confirm who handles it and when.
- If they ask to renew, ask how long they want to renew for, add a note to their tenancy in our property management system and notify me. Tell them I will come back to them after speaking to the landlord.
- If they ask about giving notice, give the notice period and how to give it from their tenancy terms.
If there is water leaking, no water, an electrical fault, a gas smell or a broken lock, tell them to switch off the supply if it is safe, to contact local emergency services if anyone is in danger, and hand the conversation to me straight away. Never agree to a rent change, a deduction from the deposit, or who pays for a repair that the terms do not cover. Hand those to me. Reply in the tenant’s language.
Change the example terms to each property’s own terms in the knowledge base before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your tenancy terms. Upload the key terms for each property you manage to the knowledge base: repair responsibility, the minor repair limit, air conditioning servicing, notice period, deposit and renewal clauses. A one-page summary per property works better than the full agreement.
- Your property management software. It holds the tenancies, with tenant name, phone number, start and end dates and the landlord, and the maintenance requests, so you and the landlord see the same list. Property management software such as Buildium connects through its API: an administrator creates an API key under Settings, then Developer Tools, and pastes in the client ID and secret when AeroChat asks.
If you let only a handful of properties and keep tenancies and repairs in a Google Sheet, connect your Google account and approve the access, and AeroChat reads and logs to your Sheet instead.
Lease-end and renewal reminders come from your property management software, or a WhatsApp broadcast to tenants, which is included from the Growth plan.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- Which tenancies you manage through AeroChat and which you handle yourself.
- Each property’s terms, kept current in the knowledge base.
- Which repairs count as urgent.
- Every decision about rent, renewals and deposit deductions, with the landlord.
AeroChat answers from the terms you upload and logs requests. It does not decide who pays.
The result to expect
Tenants get an answer from their own tenancy terms the same evening, and repair requests arrive with a photo and the details you need. Your evenings go to the conversations that need you, such as renewals and disputes, and landlords see a clean repairs log.
Measure it with your own numbers: tenant messages you answer by hand in a week, before and after you start.
Next: agent handover.
Give tenants their answer tonight
Upload the terms for one property, paste the recipe, and ask who pays for an air conditioning repair from the tenant’s number.
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