When landlords talk about voids, most do the same sum: “an empty month is £1,250 I don’t collect.” True, but it’s only half the bill. The service charge and insurance carry on, council tax and utilities become yours, and getting the next tenant in means cleaning, redecorating and advertising.
This guide puts numbers on a void month and on a change of tenant, and leaves you three practical things: how much to set aside, how to shorten the gap, and what to check before cutting the rent to fill it.
General information with illustrative figures, not tax or legal advice. For your own situation, ask an accountant.
If you’d like Livra to track tenancy end dates and keep the running cost of every property, join the waitlist. You can do the sum below yourself in a spreadsheet.
The reference property
We use the same property as in the rest of the blog, the one from the 7 hidden costs:
- Purchase price: £250,000
- Monthly rent: £1,250
- Annual gross rent: £15,000
- Gross yield: 6.0 %
An occupied month versus an empty one
The fixed costs are the same whether or not someone lives there. Using that article’s figures (service charge and ground rent £1,200/year, landlord insurance £250/year):
| Item (per month) | Occupied month | Empty month |
|---|---|---|
| Rent received | +£1,250 | £0 |
| Service charge and ground rent (£1,200 / 12) | −£100 | −£100 |
| Landlord insurance (£250 / 12) | −£21 | −£21 |
| Council tax | £0 (tenant pays) | −£150 |
| Utilities (standing charges, minimum use) | £0 (tenant pays) | −£40 |
| Result for the month | +£1,129 | −£311 |
The gap between the two isn’t £1,250, it’s £1,440: the rent you don’t collect plus the £190 of council tax and utilities the tenant used to cover. In that month you go from earning £1,129 to losing £311.
Turning the property round also costs
A void rarely comes alone. Between one tenant and the next there are costs that only exist because the property changes hands:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Deep clean | £120 |
| Redecoration | £800 |
| Photos, listing and check-in inventory | £200 |
| Total for the turnover | £1,120 |
(Redecoration is the same figure already inside the annual maintenance estimate; we separate it here to show what a single departure weighs.)
A change of tenant with one empty month costs £1,440 + £1,120 = £2,560, about two months’ rent.
What each void month takes off your yield
| Empty months per year | Rent received | Gross yield | Cost of the void (rent + council tax + utilities) | Yield points lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | £15,000 | 6.0 % | £0 | 0 |
| 1 | £13,750 | 5.5 % | £1,440 | 0.6 |
| 2 | £12,500 | 5.0 % | £2,880 | 1.2 |
| 3 | £11,250 | 4.5 % | £4,320 | 1.7 |
Three empty months a year doesn’t sound like much, but it takes more than a point and a half off a property whose net yield was already around 2 %. That’s why a property that stays let nearly all year often beats a higher-rent one that struggles to find a tenant.
Five ways to shorten the gap
- Start marketing the day notice arrives, not the day the tenant leaves. Under the Renters’ Rights Act, tenancies are periodic and a tenant generally gives two months’ notice. That’s a long runway: list the property, line up viewings if the tenant agrees, and aim to have the next tenant ready to move in the day after.
- Run the turnover in parallel. Have the decorator and cleaner booked before the departure date and do the check-out inspection on the last day. Every week of works you save is a week of rent.
- Look after the tenant you already have. A modest, well-explained rent review nearly always costs less than £2,560 for a turnover. A reliable payer is worth fixing the dripping tap for.
- Price where properties let quickly. An extra £50 a month looks like +£600 a year on paper, but loses money if it adds three weeks of listing with no enquiries. We cover it in how to price your rental. Note you must advertise a specific asking rent, and under the Act you can’t accept offers above it.
- Keep tenancy dates in one place. Most long voids start with “I thought it ended later.” Livra keeps each tenancy’s dates and reminds you ahead of them.
What counts for tax (in general)
Costs incurred while a property is genuinely available to let between tenants are generally allowable expenses of the letting business, but the detail depends on your circumstances. See which expenses you can deduct and the official guidance on gov.uk, or ask your accountant.
What matters
An empty month doesn’t cost the rent: it costs the rent plus costs that don’t stop, and a change of tenant adds a bill of its own. On the reference property that’s £1,440 per void month and £1,120 for the turnover, about £2,560 for each departure. Set aside roughly two months’ rent per property to absorb it, start marketing the day notice arrives, and don’t trade a reliable tenant for a few pounds of rent.
If you’d like each property to carry its tenancy dates, reminders ahead of every deadline and the real cost of each month in one place, take a look at Livra. And if you’re still working out whether the let pays, the rental yield calculator gives you the number in a minute. To see what sits behind the 6 % gross, read real vs projected yield.