A void is not a blank month on a spreadsheet. It is rent you do not receive, bills that switch back to you, and a property that gets harder to let the longer it sits empty.

Count the whole month, not just the rent

Take the monthly rent. Add:

  • Council tax for the empty period, which often returns to the owner once the tenant leaves
  • Utilities, standing charges, and any heating you leave on to avoid damp
  • Insurance conditions that change when a property is unoccupied
  • The cost of the inventory, check-out, and compliance work needed before the next tenancy
  • Mortgage interest, which does not pause

A property let at £2,000 a month does not "only" lose £2,000 if it is empty for four weeks. Council tax and bills on a London flat can add a few hundred pounds more, and a second empty month doubles the rent loss. Use your own rent and your own council tax band. The £2,000 figure is an illustration, not an NPS average.

The expensive way to cut a void

Pricing above the local lets, "to see what happens", is how a two-week void becomes six. So is waiting until the tenant has gone before anyone takes photographs. The re-let should be planned while notice is still running: what work is required, what the comparable rents are, and who is doing viewings.

A managing agent who starts that plan only after the keys are back is already late. Put that question in the health check: when a tenancy ends, is the re-let planned before the property is empty?

Where the fee fits

Full management is often quoted in the region of 8% to 15% plus VAT of rent collected. On a £2,000 rent, 12% plus VAT is a few hundred pounds a month. One extra void month can exceed a year of that fee. That comparison only works if the agent actually shortens voids. An agent who charges the fee and still markets late is the expensive option. Read the fees guide before you treat a percentage as the whole cost.

Ask for the last void

If you are comparing agents, ask how the last vacant property on their books was priced, how many days it was empty, and what was spent to re-let it. NPS will answer that from the instruction, not from a slogan. Send the current tenancy end date with the review request if a void is already in the diary.