The Void Turnaround Guide

Every day a property sits empty costs the landlord money and the agent goodwill. The voids that drag are almost never about any one job taking too long — they're about jobs happening in the wrong order. The right sequence is boringly consistent:

1. Check-out and inventory first

The check-out report against the check-in inventory decides everything downstream: what's fair wear and tear, what needs repairing, what needs cleaning, and what (if anything) is a deposit conversation. Get it done — with photographs — before any trade sets foot in the property.

2. Maintenance and trades next

Repairs, painting, and any refurbishment happen in the middle of the void. Every trade generates dust and mess — which is precisely why the clean must not happen yet.

3. The clean goes last

Cleaning before the trades finish is paying for the same clean twice: plaster dust and paint splashes will undo it in an afternoon. The clean is the final job before marketing photographs and check-in — it sets the standard the new inventory records, and the standard you can fairly ask for back at the next check-out. If the check-out report flagged the carpets, this is when the carpet add-on earns its keep.

4. Photographs, check-in, keys

Marketing photos and the new check-in inventory happen straight after the clean, while the property is at its best. The new tenancy starts from a documented, checklist-clean baseline — and the whole cycle gets easier every time it runs.

Where we fit

We're the last trade in: end of tenancy cleans after check-out, pre-tenancy cleans before a new let, to one set checklist across 26 towns in three counties. Agents managing several voids at once: see how we work with letting agents.