Please read these terms before using Hamish. Hamish is an artificial intelligence repair-reporting assistant. It can ask questions, provide basic troubleshooting guidance, classify a repair and send a report to the relevant RentLocally team. It is not an emergency service and does not replace a qualified contractor or a person's judgement.
1 Who provides Hamish
Hamish is operated as a RentLocally brand service by RentLocally.co.uk Limited. The property-management or repair service for a particular property may be provided by RentLocally.co.uk Limited or by a separate franchisee, partner or other business authorised to trade under the RentLocally brand. The business responsible for the property is called the Applicable RentLocally Business in these terms.
These terms apply to RentLocally.co.uk Limited, the Applicable RentLocally Business, and their directors, employees, representatives and contractors where they are involved in providing Hamish or dealing with the repair. Each business remains responsible for its own acts and legal duties. The applicable office can be identified through the RentLocally office directory or by contacting RentLocally.
2 Who may use Hamish
Hamish may be used by a tenant, lawful occupier, landlord or person authorised to report a repair for the property. You must give accurate information and must not impersonate another person. If you are under 16, ask a responsible adult to help where practicable, but do not delay contacting an emergency service where anyone may be in danger.
3 Agreement to these terms
You agree to these terms by ticking the acceptance box and continuing into Hamish. The box must not be pre-ticked. If you do not agree, or cannot use Hamish, report the repair through your local RentLocally office or the alternative route stated in your tenancy information. These terms do not change your tenancy agreement or remove any right or duty imposed by law.
4 When a repair is treated as reported
A repair is treated as submitted through Hamish only when the final submission has completed, and Hamish displays a successful confirmation. Starting a chat, typing information, uploading a file or receiving troubleshooting guidance does not by itself confirm that the repair report has reached the relevant team.
- If no successful confirmation appears, use Hamish again or contact the relevant RentLocally office by another route.
- Keep the confirmation or reference details where these are provided.
- A successful confirmation records receipt. It is not an admission of liability, approval of works or confirmation that Hamish's initial priority is final.
- If the problem worsens, new danger appears or the original report may have been blocked as a duplicate, contact the relevant team again and explain what has changed.
5 Emergencies and urgent repairs
Hamish can record and escalate urgent property repairs, but it is not a substitute for the emergency services and must not be relied on where immediate action is needed to protect life, health or property.
- Call 999 for an immediate threat to life, fire, serious injury or crime in progress.
- Call NHS 24 on 111 for urgent medical help in Scotland when the situation is not life-threatening.
- If you smell gas or suspect carbon monoxide, leave the affected area, avoid flames and electrical switches, and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. Call 999 as well if there is immediate danger.
- For an urgent repair outside normal office hours, use RentLocally's published out-of-hours repair number, currently 0131 392 0121, or the emergency arrangements given by the Applicable RentLocally Business.
After taking any necessary emergency action, you may use Hamish to record the property repair. Hamish may assign an urgent priority and pass the report to the team, but automated priority is subject to human review and may change when further information becomes available.
6 Troubleshooting and safety
Hamish may offer basic checks or link to third-party videos. Follow guidance only if it is safe, within your ability and consistent with the appliance manufacturer's instructions. Stop if you are unsure, the situation changes, or there is any risk of injury or damage.
- Do not remove appliance covers, work on gas equipment, disturb suspected asbestos, alter fixed wiring or attempt any task that requires a qualified contractor.
- Do not continue where there is water near electricity, burning, sparking, smoke, a gas smell, suspected carbon monoxide, structural movement or another serious hazard.
- A link is provided for convenience. RentLocally does not control third-party content and cannot guarantee that a video fits your appliance or circumstances.
Using Hamish does not authorise you to instruct a contractor, carry out chargeable work or incur a cost on behalf of a landlord or RentLocally. Reimbursement requires prior written approval unless the law gives you a separate right.
7 Artificial intelligence limitations
Hamish generates responses using artificial intelligence. AI can misunderstand information, omit relevant questions or provide an incorrect response. Hamish's output is general repair-triage guidance, not professional, legal, medical, electrical, gas or engineering advice. You remain responsible for following emergency instructions and for telling us clearly about relevant symptoms, risks and changes.
Hamish does not make a final decision about liability, access, contractor appointment, payment, compensation, tenancy enforcement or any other matter with a legal or similarly significant effect. A person must make or review those decisions.
8 Information you provide
You must provide information that is accurate to the best of your knowledge, including the full property address and the details needed to understand the repair. Clear photographs or video may help, but you should not upload more personal information than is reasonably needed.
- Do not upload passwords, bank or payment-card information, identity documents, intimate images, unlawful material, malware or confidential information unrelated to the repair.
- Avoid including another person's personal information unless it is necessary and you are authorised to provide it.
- You confirm that you have the right to upload the content and allow it to be used for repair, tenancy, safety, insurance, complaint and legal-record purposes where relevant.
9 How information is used
Hamish may process your name, property address, repair description, chat transcript, uploaded files, timestamps and technical or security information. This information may be used to troubleshoot, create and route the report, contact relevant people, arrange access or works, protect people and property, prevent misuse, monitor quality, investigate complaints and keep appropriate tenancy and property records.
Information may be shared where necessary with the Applicable RentLocally Business, the landlord or property owner, contractors, emergency or public authorities, insurers, professional advisers, and the technology and AI service providers used to operate Hamish. Some suppliers may process information outside the United Kingdom using an appropriate legal safeguard. RentLocally remains responsible for selecting and managing processors as required by data-protection law.
More information, including lawful bases, retention periods and data-protection rights, is in the RentLocally Privacy Notice. The current data-protection contact is Steven Murray at steven.murray@rentlocally.co.uk.
10 Access and appointments
Submitting a report does not give RentLocally, the landlord or a contractor automatic permission to enter the property. Except where the law allows urgent access, access must be arranged in accordance with the tenancy agreement and applicable notice requirements. Tell the team about availability, communication needs, vulnerabilities or reasonable adjustments that may affect access or the repair.
11 Response and repair times
The relevant team will assess the report according to its nature and urgency. RentLocally normally aims to respond to submitted reports within 48 hours and to deal with urgent repairs as soon as reasonably practicable. These are service aims, not guaranteed completion times. Parts, access, contractor availability, landlord instructions and the nature of the fault may affect timing. Nothing in these terms reduces any statutory repairing duty or requirement to deal with repairs promptly and appropriately.
12 Availability and duplicate reports
Hamish may be unavailable, delayed or interrupted for maintenance, security, internet or supplier reasons. The service may identify a recent report as a possible duplicate. Do not use repeated submissions to delay appropriate troubleshooting or overwhelm the service. If a repair has worsened, has become urgent or was not previously reported, use the correction option where shown or contact the relevant office directly.
13 Acceptable use
You must not misuse Hamish. This includes knowingly making false or malicious reports, attempting to override safety controls, extracting confidential instructions or data, introducing harmful code, using automated traffic to disrupt the service, harassing staff or contractors, or using Hamish for a purpose unrelated to a RentLocally property or service. RentLocally may stop or restrict a session where reasonably necessary for safety, security or abuse prevention. This does not prevent a genuine repair from being reported through another available route.
14 Liability and rights preserved
Nothing in these terms excludes or restricts liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation. Nothing removes a landlord's repairing duties, RentLocally's duties under the Letting Agent Code of Practice, or any right you have under your tenancy agreement or consumer law.
To the extent permitted by law, RentLocally is not responsible for loss that was not reasonably foreseeable, for loss caused by inaccurate or incomplete information supplied by a user, for unauthorised work or expenditure, or for failure to follow clear emergency and safety instructions. Any limitation applies only where it is fair and lawful in the circumstances.
15 Complaints and human assistance
You may ask for a person at any time. Contact the Applicable RentLocally Business through the RentLocally office directory, call head office on 0131 445 9900, or email enquiries@rentlocally.co.uk. Complaints will be handled under RentLocally's complaints procedure and the Scottish Letting Agent Code of Practice where applicable.
16 Changes to Hamish or these terms
RentLocally may update Hamish and these terms to reflect service, supplier, security or legal changes. The version and effective date will be displayed. A material change will apply to future sessions after it is published. It will not remove rights or duties that arose before the change.
17 Governing law
These terms are governed by Scots law. The Scottish courts will have jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory right you have to bring proceedings elsewhere. Where the Contract (Third Party Rights) (Scotland) Act 2017 applies, the Applicable RentLocally Business and the people or businesses expressly protected by these terms may enforce the provisions intended for their benefit. RentLocally and the user may otherwise vary or end these terms without another person's consent.
18 Website acceptance wording
Use the following unticked checkbox immediately before the user enters the chat:
I confirm that I am authorised to report this repair, and I have read and agree to the Hamish Terms and Conditions and have read the RentLocally Privacy Notice.
Place visible links to both documents beside the checkbox. Record the terms version, date and time of acceptance with the repair record. Provide a clear link to an alternative reporting route for anyone who cannot or does not wish to use Hamish.