Why is reporting a repair in the UK still this painful in 2026?
Posted by Intelligent-Chef9772@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 5 comments
Genuine question.
I’m a UI/UX designer working on a project around housing services (repairs, inspections, rent stuff etc.), and the more I look into it… the more it feels like everything is stuck in 2005.
From what I’ve seen/heard so far:
* You report an issue… then it disappears into a black hole
* You get asked the same info again and again
* No clear updates unless you chase
* Different people/systems not talking to each other
* Contractors, housing officers, tenants all slightly out of sync
Feels like way too much effort just to fix a leaking tap or damp wall.
So I wanted to ask people here (tenants, council housing, housing associations, even private renters or housing staff):
* What’s the most frustrating part of dealing with repairs or housing issues?
* How bad/good is the reporting process?
* Do you actually get updates, or do you have to chase everything?
* Ever had something drag on for weeks/months?
* If you could fix ONE thing, what would it be?
And if you work in housing:
* What part of your job feels unnecessarily manual or repetitive?
* What slows things down the most?
I’m trying to design something that actually fixes these problems instead of adding another layer of confusion.
Also — if you’re okay with it, I might use anonymized insights from this thread to improve the project (nothing personal, just patterns and pain points).
Would really appreciate honest (even brutal) feedback 🙏
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ExcitementKooky418@reddit
Are you designing the new CRM for my workplace?
I work for a housing association on the repairs team. Happy to discuss a few points if you want to DM me, whether it's for us or not
CoffeeandaTwix@reddit
I think you are going about this the wrong way.
There are loads of good tools out there for this type of thing. They are used e.g. in commercial property or higher end resi.
The reason that they aren't used in the situations you are talking about is because not only do the landlords not want to pay for the maintenance tools; they don't want to pay for the maintenance or make it easy.
logicalGOOSE_@reddit
This is too broad.
You essentially want to create something that all these different groups of people are, for whatever reason, going to adopt. That is likely to instantly stop this in its tracks.
Likely to consider is that there are systems, but its not necessarily the systems thats fail, its the people using them - and they will proceed to blame the system to avoid placing themselves in the line of fire.
I imagine if there was a system to be made as a one fix all, it would likely have been done in the last decade. I'd imagine the users are the issue and all the systems in the world won't fix it.
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