Property managers who review a lettings agent's work need onboarding built around the few actions that are hard to undo: serving notices, releasing deposits, paying landlords and contractors. This checklist covers access and red lines, shadowing on held items, reviewer training and exam, a practicum with a safety report and a disputed deposit, a drill and sign-off.
What does a lettings reviewer approve?
A lettings agent handles a busy mix of work. It answers applicant and tenant enquiries, books viewings, gathers referencing documents, drafts tenancy agreements and renewal offers, raises routine maintenance orders within a budget at depth 3, and sends rent reminders. It holds anything with legal or financial weight: notices to tenants, deposit deductions and returns, payments to landlords or contractors above a limit, and any change to who gets paid.
Two kinds of case need fast human judgement. Safety reports: a tenant mentions a gas smell, exposed wiring or a child's breathing problems blamed on damp. The agent should route these at once, and a reviewer must recognise them in messages the agent treated as routine. And notices: a notice served with the wrong date or in the wrong form can fail, costing the landlord months. The reviewer checks the facts and form against the requirements the business follows; the legal judgement stays with whoever the business relies on for that.
How do you work through the checklist?
The lettings manager owns it. Fill in the red lines for your portfolio before the reviewer starts. Tick each item with a date; approval rights switch on only at item 14. The basic sense of onboarding applies, but the safety items come first here because the cost of missing them is not financial. The teaching method is in how to train the lettings team to review AI agent decisions; the overall order is in the guide to training teams for AI agents.
The checklist
| # | Item | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Read-only access to the lettings workspace and the record | Access log |
| 2 | Agent capabilities read: enquiries (2), viewings (3), referencing gathering (1), agreement drafts (2), maintenance orders within budget (3), rent reminders (3), notices (held), deposit decisions (held), payments above limit and payee changes (4, held) | Signed |
| 3 | Safety red line signed: any report of gas, electrical, fire, structural or serious damp risk goes to a named person the same hour | Signed |
| 4 | Other red lines signed: never approve a notice without checking dates and form against the business's requirements; never release or deduct a deposit without the recorded agreement or decision; never change a landlord's or contractor's bank details on an email alone | Signed |
| 5 | Shadowing: two days with a certified reviewer | Buddy note |
| 6 | Seen a safety report escalated from a routine-looking message | Buddy note |
| 7 | Seen a notice corrected before service | Buddy note |
| 8 | Shared foundation complete | Test score |
| 9 | Reviewer modules and written exam complete | Exam result |
| 10 | Practicum: two weeks of real held items, confirmed by a buddy | Practicum record |
| 11 | Coverage: a safety report, a disputed deposit, a notice, a contractor invoice over budget | Case list |
| 12 | Incident drill completed | Drill log |
| 13 | Assessor sign-off; no missed red line | Signed |
| 14 | Approval rights recorded; renewal date set | Register |
Worked example
An illustrative letting agency managing 600 homes brings in Sample Reviewer Z. The agent raises maintenance orders up to 300 and holds everything above, plus all notices and deposit decisions.
During shadowing, a tenant writes: "Boiler's making a funny noise again and there's a weird smell in the kitchen, can someone come next week?" The agent books a routine visit. Her buddy reads it, calls the tenant, advises them to leave and call the emergency gas line, and escalates. The booking is cancelled and replaced with an emergency call-out.
Sample Reviewer Z's practicum covers 80 held items. She corrects a renewal notice that gave a date before the fixed term ended, holds a deposit deduction for cleaning because the check-out report and the tenant's photos disagreed, and refuses a contractor's emailed request to "update our bank details for this invoice". She is signed off in week 7 with rights to approve maintenance orders up to 1,500 and notices after a second check for her first quarter. The drill followed how to run an AI agent incident drill for the lettings team.
Where the Academy fits
Pryme Intelligence Academy covers items 8, 9 and 13. Operator includes a written exam and a two-week practicum with at least 95 in every 100 decisions correct and no missed red line, signed off by a Pryme assessor. For a lettings business, the readiness assessment for teams of up to 25 is a useful first step: it shows scores by concept and suggests the first agent to start with.
Questions people ask
Who should check notices if the reviewer is not legally trained?
The reviewer checks facts and form against the business's own requirements. Anything uncertain goes to whoever the business relies on for legal judgement. Write that route into the red lines.
How is lettings review like a clinic practice team's?
Both handle bookings, payments and messages from members of the public, some of them urgent. Compare with the reviewer onboarding checklist for the practice team.
Should compliance staff review lettings decisions?
In larger agencies, yes, by sampling. Their own preparation is in the reviewer onboarding checklist for the compliance team.