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Habitia Help

Tenant-submitted maintenance requests

Tenants can submit maintenance requests directly from their portal — no calls, no texts, no lost photos. Each request becomes a regular work order in your Work Orders queue, but with a tenant-facing thread so you can reply, ask questions, and share resolution notes.

How a request becomes a work order

When a tenant in their portal taps New request, picks a category and priority, writes a description, and (often) attaches photos, Habitia:

  1. Creates a new work order in your queue with status: Open.
  2. Pre-fills the property, unit, and room/asset (if the tenant specified one).
  3. Attaches every photo they captured during the request.
  4. Notifies you via the Smart alerts feed (and via push if enabled).

The work order shows in your normal Work Orders page mixed with the ones you logged yourself.

1. Open the request

Click the work order from the Work Orders list. It opens on the standard work-order detail page, just like one you logged.

2. Read what the tenant said

You’ll see:

  • The title and description they submitted.
  • The category they picked.
  • The priority they assigned.
  • The room or asset they linked, if any.
  • A photo gallery of any pictures they attached.

The work order also has a tenant message thread at the bottom — read every message the tenant has sent so far.

Tip: If the photo is unclear or doesn’t match the description, ask in the thread before dispatching a vendor. A two-message exchange beats a wasted visit.

3. Reply in the thread

The thread is two-way. Use it to:

  • Ask follow-up questions (“Is the leak coming from under the sink or behind the wall?”).
  • Tell the tenant when you’ll be there (“Roberto will come Tuesday between 10 and 12”).
  • Share what was found (“Replaced the faucet cartridge. Let us know if it leaks again.”).

The tenant sees your messages instantly in their portal. Each side can also attach photos to the thread.

4. Triage: keep, escalate, or assign

Same options as any work order:

  • Update priority if the tenant under- or over-rated it.
  • Schedule it by setting the scheduled date.
  • Assign a vendor (Assigning a vendor).
  • Set status to In progress when work starts.

5. Resolve and close

When the work is done:

  1. Fill in the Resolution notes field on the work order (what was done, parts used, follow-up if any).
  2. Update Materials cost and Labor cost.
  3. Set Status: Completed.

The tenant sees the resolution notes in their portal — they know it’s done and what was done.

Photos along the way

Tenants can keep adding photos to the thread after submission. Vendors with portal access can do the same. Every photo is preserved on the work order, with timestamps, so the full visual history is one click away.

When tenants don’t have portal access

If a tenant doesn’t have a portal account yet, they can’t submit a request through the app. They’ll call or text you. In that case:

  1. Take the call.
  2. Log the work order yourself (Logging a work order).
  3. Invite the tenant to the portal afterwards so future requests can flow through it.

What’s next