Managing Maintenance Requests and Service Pros

Log a repair, let AI draft and triage it, schedule a vendor, track the job to completion, and settle the bill — all from one request thread.

Go to Maintenance →

The maintenance dashboard

The Maintenance list shows four live stats — Open Requests, In Progress, Completed This Month, and Avg. Resolution (days) — plus filter tabs for Open, Assigned, In Progress, Completed, and Cancelled. Each row shows the issue title, AI-detected category and priority, property/unit, who logged it, submission date, and the AI cost estimate when one exists.

Creating a request

Click Add Request, choose the property and unit, then fill in a title, description, and priority (Emergency, High, Normal, or Low). You can attach up to 3 photos. Tenants can also submit requests directly from their own dashboard, so not every request in your list originates from you.

AI Draft Assistant

Instead of writing the title and description yourself, type a plain-language note (e.g. "kitchen faucet won't stop dripping") and/or upload photos, then click Write with AI. AI reads your note and photos and fills in a professional title, a detailed description, and a recommended priority. This costs 3 AI credits for text-only, or 5 AI credits when photos are included (the higher cost reflects image analysis).

Scheduling a vendor

The Schedule Vendor section on the request form lets you record a vendor name and an optional scheduled date & time. This is the live, production way to track who's doing the work — VerticalRent doesn't dispatch the vendor for you; you coordinate with them directly (phone, email, text) and just log the details here so the tenant and your records stay in sync. You can edit the vendor name or reschedule at any time from the request's detail page.

Finding a vendor through the Service Pro Directory

If you don't already have someone lined up, expand Search Service Pro Directory to search VerticalRent's directory of licensed service professionals across all 50 states. Selecting a result pre-fills their email and phone into the invite fields below.

Inviting a service pro

Enter an email and/or SMS/phone number to send the pro a direct link to the job. They can view the job details, upload photos, and message you through VerticalRent without needing to create an account first.

Tracking status

From the request's detail page, use the status bar to move a request through Open → Assigned → In Progress → Completed (or Cancelled), and adjust the priority if it changes. Each request shows the tenant's original description, any attached photos, and — once you've scheduled someone — their name and appointment time in the sidebar, editable at any point before the job is done.

AI Triage Analysis

When AI has analyzed a request (via the AI Draft Assistant at creation), the detail page shows an AI Triage Analysis card with the detected category, AI priority, and an estimated repair cost — a quick reference before you even talk to a vendor. Independently, you can click AI Cost Estimate (4 AI credits) at any time on the detail page to get a fresh estimated cost, a low–high range, and a short rationale from AI based on the issue description.

Completing a job and paying a vendor

How a job gets marked complete depends on who's doing the work:

• External vendors (the live, production path) — you coordinate completion and payment with them directly, outside the app, then log the job as done by updating its status and record the expense yourself in your income and expense ledger (Repairs category, with a receipt attached if you have one).
• Platform-network vendors (only reachable through the dev-only picker above) — the vendor marks their own job complete with the actual cost and completion notes from their side. Once that happens, a Cost Breakdown card appears on the request showing the AI estimate, actual cost, platform fee, and vendor payout, and — if that vendor has a connected Stripe payout account — a Pay Vendor button lets you pay them in-app: funds transfer to their Stripe Connect account minus a platform fee (currently 3% of the job total), and the request auto-creates a matching "repairs" expense entry in your ledger.

After an in-app payment, you can rate the vendor from 1–5 stars with an optional comment — this feeds their rating and review count shown in the directory.