Analysis from AI property maintenance platform Lettie found that rental maintenance reports rose 41% during the week of 21 to 27 October, against the average for the previous four weeks. The number of individual properties reporting an issue climbed faster, up 58%.
Exterior problems, water ingress and drainage saw the sharpest increases. Roof, guttering and external leak reports rose 460%, external damage reports increased 233%, and drainage and guttering reports climbed 150%.
Appliance and ventilation reports rose 50%, while plumbing and drainage reports increased 40%. Tenants described fences damaged by wind, rain entering around windows, roof leaks and gutters leaking in heavy rain.
Lettie tracked an established cohort of rental properties on its platform, excluding newly added properties and test accounts so that customer growth did not distort the results. It grouped repeat reports and chasers about the same fault into single cases. Reporting was also 63% higher than the preceding week and above every individual week in the four-week comparison period.
The firm cautioned that some categories overlap and that the largest percentage rises come from small groups of cases, so they carry less weight than the overall increase. Reported issues were not independently inspected, and the figures show an association with the storm period rather than proving that weather caused every additional case.
Rental maintenance reports surge outside office hours
Out-of-hours cases rose by more than 60%. Reports first made outside Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm accounted for almost 48% of all maintenance reporting during the week, up from roughly 42% in the previous period.
“The interesting thing for landlords and agents is not simply that maintenance reporting increased, but where that increase appeared and when tenants were reporting it,” said Connor Hawkins, co-founder and chief solutions officer at Lettie.
“We saw a particularly sharp rise in roof, guttering, drainage and external problems, alongside a 61.5% increase in maintenance cases being reported outside traditional office hours.
“When weather conditions deteriorate, property managers can find themselves dealing with a sudden concentration of problems at exactly the time when their teams may be least available.”
Overall tenant message volume rose just 3.1%, compared with the 41% increase in grouped maintenance cases, which suggests the surge reflects more maintenance issues rather than more messages.
“That distinction is important,” he added. “We weren’t simply seeing tenants sending 40% more messages.
“The increase remained when reports relating to the same underlying problem were grouped together, and considerably more individual properties were reporting maintenance issues too.
“For agents managing hundreds or thousands of homes, that kind of sudden shift can create a significant operational challenge. Periods of severe weather don’t necessarily generate a steady increase in workload – they can create a surge of different problems across a portfolio in a very short period.”
Not every report described new damage. Some tenant conversations indicated that existing problems, including water ingress and recurring leaks, had become visible again during heavy rain or wind.
“A storm can expose issues that may not have been obvious during normal conditions,” he explained. “For property managers, the challenge is therefore not only responding to obvious new damage. It is also understanding whether a tenant is describing a new problem, the recurrence of an earlier issue or an existing defect that has suddenly become more serious.
“Having that history and context available when the report arrives can make a real difference to how efficiently the issue is handled.”
