Keeping a Tenant Communication Log

A tenant communication log is a single, dated record of every exchange with a tenant about their tenancy: calls, emails, texts, letters and visits. When a dispute comes, about a repair, a deposit, arrears or access, the log is usually the first thing an adviser, mediator or tribunal asks for. A landlord with a complete log can show what was reported, when, and what they did. A landlord without one is relying on memory against a tenant's inbox.

What to log

Every contact that concerns the tenancy, in either direction:

• Repair and maintenance reports, and your responses
• Rent queries, payment arrangements and arrears reminders
• Requests for access, with the notice given and the tenant's reply
• Complaints, including about neighbours or other occupants
• Notices served, with how they were delivered
• Visits and inspections
• Conversations in passing, which are the ones most often forgotten

What each entry needs

1. Date and time
2. Method: call, email, text, letter, in person
3. Who: which tenant or occupant, and who on your side
4. What was said or asked, in a sentence or two, in neutral language
5. What was agreed or promised, and by when
6. Follow-up: what you will do next and the date

Write the entry the same day. For calls, how to log a phone call properly covers the detail. Where something important was agreed verbally, send a short confirming email and log that too.

The format problem

A notebook or spreadsheet works for one property. With several, the log splits: some in the spreadsheet, some in your inbox, some in text messages, some in your head. The fix is to keep the log on the tenancy record itself, so email, notes and calls about that tenancy land in one place in date order.

Keeping it in Herarx

In Herarx each tenancy is a case, and the case keeps a timeline of what happened on it. With Mail connected, you use Add to case on an email and it is filed to the tenancy: the message and its attachments go to the case files, and the conversation appears on the case's Mail tab. Emails you write from the case are filed automatically when sent. Calls and visits go in as comments on the case, and follow-ups become tasks with due dates, which then show on your calendar. The tenant is a contact linked to the case, and their contact record shows the email conversations you have had with their addresses. Nobody has to retype the inbox into a spreadsheet.

Keep the tone neutral

Write every entry as if the tenant will read it, because in a dispute they may. "Tenant reported damp in bedroom; visit booked for Tuesday" works. "Tenant complaining again" does not. Facts, dates, actions.

Log what you did, not only what they said

The most useful entries in a dispute are the landlord's own actions: contractor booked, visit attempted, part ordered, tenant updated. A repair that took six weeks looks very different when the log shows each step and the reason for each wait. See rent arrears: how to document and chase for the same principle applied to money.

At the end of the tenancy

Keep the log with the rest of the tenancy file. Deposit disputes turn on it; what evidence you need for a deposit dispute explains how it combines with inventories and photos. Keep it for as long as your retention policy and local limitation rules require, then dispose of it deliberately.