The real cost of a void month on a 4-bed in Ilford
Everyone counts the lost rent. Almost nobody counts the council tax, the standing charges and the re-let fee. Here is the full arithmetic.
Take a four-bedroom house in IG1 letting at £2,400 a month. It goes empty on 1 September. What does that actually cost?
The obvious line
Lost rent: £2,400 a month. That is the number every landlord quotes and it is roughly half the story.
The lines people forget
- Council tax — liability reverts to the owner when a property is unoccupied. Redbridge Band D is roughly £180 a month, and empty-property premiums can apply after twelve months.
- Utility standing charges — gas and electricity standing charges run at roughly £50 a month with nobody in the house, plus heating enough to prevent damp.
- Mortgage — a £300,000 interest-only buy-to-let at 5.5 per cent is about £1,375 a month, due regardless.
- Insurance — most policies restrict cover after 30 to 45 days unoccupied, and unoccupied-property cover costs more.
- Re-let costs — tenant find fee at typically one month's rent plus VAT, roughly £2,880, plus an inventory and a clean at £250 to £400.
One void, added up
A single month empty with a re-let at the end: £2,400 lost rent, £180 council tax, £50 standing charges, £3,200 to find and prepare the next tenant. Call it £5,800 of cash out and rent forgone. A two-month void takes it past £8,400 — three and a half months of gross rent gone from one gap.
Why this matters more than the headline rent
Landlords compare offers on monthly rent alone. If a guaranteed rent lease pays £2,100 against a £2,400 market rent, that is £3,600 a year of headline difference. One two-month void every three years eats most of it; one arrears case eats several years of it. Annualised, certainty is usually worth more than the last ten per cent of rent, and the landlords who have been through a possession claim rarely need convincing of that.