At 10.40 on a Wednesday, the office manager for a tenant on level 7 emails building management: the men’s toilets have a blocked pan, two lights are out over the boardroom table, and the card reader on the kitchen door has stopped reading passes. At 11.15 a second tenant on level 3 rings reception because their meeting room is at 27 degrees with a client pitch at two. The building manager forwards one email to the plumber, texts the electrician, and writes the card reader on a sticky note. By four o’clock, the level 7 office manager emails again asking whether anyone is coming.
In a leased office building, a tenant request is the service tenants can see. Base-building plant can be fixed before anyone arrives, but these faults turn up during business hours, on floors full of people, and every hour without an answer is an hour the tenant spends deciding whether the building is well run. Across a portfolio of buildings, the same afternoon can bring a leaking kitchenette tap in one tower, a jammed blind in another and a lift call button out in a third, each sitting in a different inbox.
OpsChase puts every tenant request on one board: the request is raised with a photo against the building, floor and tenancy, it goes to your own team or your contractors and is followed up until the work is done, and the property manager sees which tenants are still waiting before the end of the day.
From a tenant email to a work order
Whoever takes the request raises a work order from their phone or desk against the building, the floor and the tenancy: toilet blocked on level 7, two boardroom lights out, kitchen door card reader not reading. They add the tenant’s photo and note, and mark whether the space can stay in use until the repair.
An onsite building manager or technician can take the small jobs straight away, such as resetting a tripped circuit or changing a globe, and close them on the same work order. Anything that needs a licensed trade goes out to your contractors with the details already on the job, so nobody rings the tenant back to ask where the fault is.
OpsChase looks after the building, the plant and the people who work on them. Leases, rent and tenant billing stay in the property systems you already use.
Your contractors per building and per trade
The electrician who knows the risers in your older tower may not cover the newer building across the river. Set the order of your contractors per building and per trade: the firm on your service agreement first.
The tenant requests that fill a building manager’s day
- Temperature. Meeting rooms that run hot or cold go to heating and cooling; zones that will not hold their settings go to building management controls.
- Toilets and kitchenettes. Blocked pans, leaking taps and dripping urinals go to plumbing; hand dryers and soap dispensers go to washroom hygiene.
- Power and lights. Lights out, dead power points and tripped circuits go to electrical.
- Access and doors. Card readers and door controllers go to security; jammed office locks go to locksmith; sticking automatic doors go to doors and shutters.
- Lifts. A call button out or a lift car stopping short of the floor goes to lifts.
- Fit-out and finishes. Broken blinds, loose ceiling tiles and damaged joinery go to handyman or carpentry; lifting carpet tiles go to flooring; spills after a leak go to cleaning.
Attend-by times that suit a working floor
Every job carries an attend-by time that fits the risk: within the hour for a lift stopping short or a door that will not secure; the same day for toilets out of use or a meeting room too hot to work in; within the week for a scuffed wall in the corridor.
Add a note on when the contractor can work on a tenant floor: before 8am, at lunch when a meeting room is empty, or after hours with the building manager’s sign-in. Late jobs show against your response targets, so the property manager can see which tenants are still waiting before the end of the day, not after the second email.
Compliance and site access before anyone is booked
Keep licence, public liability, induction and site-access details on file for each contractor firm through contractor compliance, so the building team can check them before booking. Add building notes on where contractors sign in, which loading dock and goods lift to use, which floors need a tenant escort, and where the riser keys are kept.
Proof before you tell the tenant it is fixed
Set proof templates per job type: before and after photos, a note from the contractor, and a certificate where electrical, gas or fire work needs one. With proof of completion on the work order, the building manager can send the level 7 office manager a photo of the cleared toilet and the working card reader, instead of a reply that just says it is done.
Requests that keep coming back
Some requests return every few weeks: the same hot meeting room, the same kitchenette tap, the same card reader. With Assets & planned maintenance switched on, each air conditioning unit, card reader, lift and tap keeps its own job and service history, and you can run planned maintenance such as filter cleans, door servicing and washroom checks through scheduling on the same board as tenant requests. When the level 3 meeting room runs hot again, every visit is on the record, so the call between another repair and a replacement is made on what happened, not on memory.
What the property manager sees on one board
With every building on one board:
- Tenant requests come in with a photo, the building, the floor and the tenancy.
- Your own team takes the small jobs; your contractors are set in calling order per building and per trade.
- Attend-by times put lifts, doors and toilets out of use first.
- Photos, notes and certificates are attached to the work order.
- The property manager sees every open tenant request across the portfolio in one view.
For base-building plant fixed before tenants arrive, read commercial offices: plant fixed before tenants arrive. For the wider picture across a portfolio, read about multi-site maintenance.
Starting with one building
Pick the building whose tenants emailed most about repairs last quarter. Import its floors and tenancies, the contractor book and the trades each firm covers. Set roles for reception, the building manager, the onsite technician and the property manager. Set proof templates for electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling, and access control. Raise the next tenant request into OpsChase instead of forwarding the email, then add the next building.
Read the commercial offices industry page or book a demo with your building list and contractor book. Check pricing when you are ready to put every building on one board.
A tenant who emails at 10.40 should know who is coming before lunch, and should not need to send the second email at four.