When the caller is not the one paying
A tenant rings about a boiler. They did not choose you, they cannot authorise the work, and they will not be paying for it — but they are the only person in the property and the only one who knows what is happening. Rental work runs on this three-way split, and getting it wrong is how trades end up doing jobs nobody agreed to fund.
Establish the three roles early
Usually the tenant, and the only one who can describe the fault or let you in.
An agent, a property manager, sometimes the landlord directly. No work should start without this named.
Not always the same as the authoriser. Ask explicitly rather than assuming.
Most agents work to a threshold above which they must ask the landlord. Knowing it before you attend avoids a wasted visit.
The expensive version of getting it wrong
You attend on a tenant’s call, fix the problem competently, and then discover the agent never raised an order. Now you are chasing an invoice nobody accepted, with a tenant who is delighted and a managing agent who is not obliged to pay you. It is one of the most common ways small trades lose money, and it almost always starts with a call where nobody asked who authorised it.
Tenants deserve a straight answer anyway
Being told "we need your agent to confirm before we can attend" is not a brush-off if it comes with what happens next — who you will contact, when, and what to do in the meantime. Tenants are frequently stuck between a problem they cannot solve and people who are not answering, and a trade that explains the process clearly is remembered warmly by somebody who will eventually be a homeowner.
Access is its own question
Whether the tenant will be in, whether the agent holds keys, whether there is a code, and whether anyone needs notice before entry. Rental work generates more no-access visits than any other kind, and almost all of them are preventable by asking on the first call rather than assuming somebody will be home.
Frequently asked
Who is reporting it, who authorises the spend, who receives the invoice, and what the agent’s approval threshold is. They are frequently four different answers.
Attending on a tenant’s call and discovering afterwards that no order was ever raised — leaving you chasing an invoice nobody accepted.
Straight, with the process attached: who you will contact, when, and what to do meanwhile. They are stuck between a problem and people not answering.
Access. Whether the tenant is in, whether the agent holds keys, whether there is a code, and whether notice is required — almost all preventable on the first call.