What an adjudicator is actually deciding
In a tenant application about maintenance the Board looks at whether the landlord breached section 20, when the landlord knew or ought to have known, and what happened between knowing and fixing. Remedies under section 30 include ordering the repair, a rent abatement, or authorising the tenant to do the work and deduct the cost.
The gap between the report and the first action is the number that gets scrutinised. It is also the number most landlords cannot produce, because the report arrived as a text message on a personal phone and the first action was a phone call to a plumber that left no trace.
The four things to capture, every time
The original report, verbatim, with its timestamp — not a paraphrase. "Ceiling in the bathroom is dripping, started last night" is evidence. "Tenant reported a leak" is a note.
Photographs from the resident, attached to the issue rather than sitting in a camera roll. A dated photo of the actual damage settles arguments that testimony does not.
Every action as its own event with a time and an author: the trade you called, the window you booked, the notice of entry you served, the part you were waiting for, the visit that happened.
Completion, with the date, and ideally a photo of the finished work.
Practices that quietly destroy a record
Group chats and personal phones. Messages get deleted, phones get replaced, and staff leave with the history in their pocket.
Editing a note to make it read better later. A record that can be edited invites the question of whether it was, and an append-only timeline avoids the argument entirely.
Keeping the ticket but not the notice of entry. Section 27(3) requires a specific reason, day and time; if you cannot produce the notice, the visit is disputed even though it happened.
Closing an issue without recording who confirmed it was fixed. Resident confirmation is what makes the closure durable.
A record you can hand over whole
The useful test is whether a single document can be handed to the resident, the contractor and an adjudicator without editing. If three different versions of the story have to be assembled from three places, it is not a record.
Keep it per unit as well as per issue. A pattern — the same radiator four winters running — is often the point, and it is invisible if each report lives on its own.
Retain after the tenancy ends. A tenant may apply to the Board about something that happened while they were a tenant, and the file being closed is not a defence.