Letting agencies with hundreds of properties often track gas, electrical and fire certificates in a spreadsheet and find expiries after the fact. An OCR registry books engineers automatically and coordinates tenant access over WhatsApp, so certificates are renewed before they lapse.
Typical results
900
Certificates under tracking
45 days
Renewal head start
6 hrs/wk
Admin chasing time saved
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Three hundred properties meant roughly nine hundred rolling certificates — gas safety, electrical condition, fire equipment — each with its own renewal cycle. The spreadsheet was always behind, engineers were booked in a panic, and tenants missed access appointments nobody had confirmed. Fourteen certificates lapsed in one year, each one a legal exposure the agency only discovered afterwards.
Before and after
Expired certificates
−100%Renewal lead time
4.5×Admin chasing time
−75%The automation
Every certificate now enters an OCR pipeline that reads the type, property, and expiry date and files it in a central registry. Forty-five days before any expiry, the flow opens a job with the contracted engineer, then coordinates with the tenant over WhatsApp — proposing time slots, confirming access, and sending a reminder the day before. The new certificate is OCR-verified on arrival and closes the loop; a human is alerted only if the chain stalls.
How it works
- 01
OCR intake
Every gas, electrical, and fire certificate is scanned and its expiry filed against the property.
- 02
Watchdog
The flow scans the registry daily for anything expiring within the next forty-five days.
- 03
Engineer booked
A job opens automatically with the contracted engineer for that certificate type.
- 04
Tenant coordinated
WhatsApp proposes time slots to the tenant, confirms access, and reminds the day before.
- 05
Loop closed
The new certificate is OCR-verified and filed; a human steps in only if the chain stalls.
Starts from
- Gas, electric & fire certificates
- 300-property registry
Delivers
- Engineer auto-booked
- Tenant access via WhatsApp
- Fresh certificate filed
The impact
Expired certificates typically drop to zero across around nine hundred tracked, where a dozen or more lapses a year is common with a spreadsheet. Renewals are booked forty-five days ahead instead of ten, tenant no-shows for engineer visits halve, and compliance admin falls from eight hours a week to two.
Questions about this automation
Which certificates can the tracker monitor?
Any certificate with a property and an expiry date, typically gas safety, electrical condition reports and fire equipment checks. Each scanned certificate is read by OCR, its type, property and expiry are filed in a central registry, and a daily scan flags everything due to expire within the next forty-five days.
How is the engineer visit arranged with the tenant?
When a renewal is due, a job opens with the contracted engineer for that certificate type. The tenant then receives WhatsApp messages proposing time slots, confirms one with a tap and gets a reminder the day before the visit. The agreed slot is written back to the job so the engineer sees it.
What happens if the renewal chain stalls?
Every step has a time limit. If the engineer does not accept the job, the tenant does not confirm access or the new certificate never arrives, the flow alerts the compliance admin with the property and the missing step. Otherwise the new certificate is OCR-verified on arrival and closes the loop on its own.