What Lettie knows
Lettie calls the information it uses to answer and route maintenance questions knowledge.
Agency and direct-landlord accounts store it differently:
- Agencies have organisation defaults, optional branch knowledge and property knowledge.
- Direct landlords have portfolio defaults and property knowledge. They do not have organisation branches or the agency contractor directory.
The more specific level refines the broader one, so put information at the highest level where it is always true.
Where to add agency knowledge
For an agency:
- open Organisation > Settings for Organisation knowledge;
- open Organisation > Branches, then a branch, for Branch knowledge; or
- open a property and edit its knowledge for property-specific information.
Only an organisation Owner or Admin can change organisation and branch knowledge. A Member can change an accessible property's information as part of managing that property. A Viewer has read-only access.
Use the central Contractors directory for contractor telephone numbers, trades and working hours. Link that contractor into knowledge rather than copying their details into notes.
Where to add direct-landlord knowledge
For a direct landlord:
- open your avatar menu and choose Profile;
- find Portfolio knowledge under Settings for defaults across your portfolio; or
- open a property for information that applies only there.
Direct landlords manage their own portfolio and property knowledge. Where available, Lettie may also offer a Bark referral while handling a landlord maintenance report, but that is separate from saved knowledge.
The direct-landlord tenant portal uses Lettie's shared portal automatically; knowledge changes the information available to the assistant, not the portal branding.
How levels are combined
Lettie does not simply replace the whole broad record with the narrow one. Each kind of knowledge has its own rule.
Emergency contacts
Contacts are overridden by trade or contact type.
If organisation knowledge has two plumbers and a branch supplies any plumber, the branch's plumber list becomes the complete plumber list for that branch. An organisation electrician still carries through because the branch did not replace the electrician type.
At property level the same rule applies again. Multiple alternatives of the same trade at one level are kept together.
Key locations
Key locations are overridden item by item by the most specific saved value. A property's stopcock location can replace the inherited stopcock detail without removing an unrelated consumer-unit note.
Key locations are property-specific in the current editor. Keep them on the property where a tenant or contractor will use them.
Additional notes
General notes are joined from broad to specific. Organisation or portfolio notes come first, followed by branch notes where relevant, then property notes.
Because these notes accumulate, do not repeat the same instruction at every level. If an older broad instruction is no longer true, update it at its source instead of trying to contradict it lower down.
Access information
Access information is property-only. Use it for the property's practical access instructions rather than as a general portfolio note.
Treat access details as sensitive. Add only what is necessary for handling the property, keep it current and do not put passwords or unrelated personal information in general notes.
Decide how a contact may be used
When adding an emergency contact, choose the handling that matches the relationship:
- Give the number to the tenant allows Lettie to share the number while the contact is available.
- Give the number out of hours only requires working hours and shares it only when the contact is closed for normal work.
- Lettie contacts them lets the repair workflow approach the contact without revealing the number to the tenant.
- Agency reference only keeps the detail for staff and prevents automatic contact or sharing.
A linked contractor gets their name, telephone number and working hours from the central contractor record. If the contractor is retired, they are removed from active use.
Write useful knowledge
Good knowledge is short, factual and operational. For example, record:
- who handles a trade;
- when a contact is available;
- where a property control is located;
- an access constraint; or
- a clear instruction that applies to every affected property.
Avoid long policy explanations, guessed diagnoses, outdated telephone numbers and secrets.
Knowledge is not a repair policy
Knowledge supplies contacts and context. The maintenance policy decides when Lettie uses them.
For agencies, Organisation > Settings controls the planned contractor workflow, quote approvals and the out-of-hours emergency ladder. A repair that cannot wait may use emergency fallback and never waits for quote approval. Read Organisation settings and notifications before relying on a saved contact for urgent routing.
After changing knowledge, test it with a realistic property in the correct branch. Check both a routine repair and an urgent out-of-hours case, because they follow different rules.