Every day a property sits empty costs rent. Most voids drag on for the same reasons: certificates booked late, trades arriving in the wrong order, and small snags found at the check-in. This checklist sets out the work in the order that keeps a turnaround moving.
Day one: inspect and record
- Walk the property with the check-out report and photograph every room, meter and defect.
- Take meter readings and note the gas, water and electricity supply positions.
- Change or rekey the locks if keys aren’t all accounted for.
- Check for leaks, damp and mould, especially behind furniture, in bathrooms and around windows. Our damp and mould guide covers your obligations.
- Send one list to one contractor. Get the electrical, plumbing, decorating and cleaning scope priced together, from photos and video where possible.
Book the safety certificates straight away
Certificates have the longest lead times and block the new tenancy, so book them first.
- Gas safety record (annual, if there are gas appliances)
- EICR (at least every five years, or sooner if the last report says so)
- Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms tested and working on move-in day
- Fire doors and fire safety measures checked where relevant, especially in HMOs and blocks
Our landlord safety certificates checklist and smoke and CO alarm guide set out the current rules for England.
Book the EICR before any decorating. If it finds C1 or C2 defects, the remedial work may involve chasing walls. Better to find out before fresh paint goes on.
Repairs before redecoration
Work in this order to avoid redoing anything:
- Electrical remedials from the EICR, plus any tired sockets, switches or light fittings
- Plumbing and heating: dripping taps, leaking traps, boiler service, radiator bleed, and silicone resealing around baths and showers
- Carpentry and general repairs: sticking doors, broken handles, kitchen cupboard hinges, window restrictors
- Flooring repairs or replacement
- Decorating: fill, sand and paint; mould-resistant paint in bathrooms
- Deep clean, including inside appliances, extractor filters and windows
Before marketing photos
- all bulbs working, with a consistent colour temperature
- smoke and CO alarms fitted and tested
- appliance manuals and boiler instructions left in a drawer
- garden tidied, bins emptied and the bin store cleared
Before check-in
- final walk-round against the scope, with photos
- all certificates collected and ready to send to the tenant
- inventory updated to reflect new items and repairs
How we help agents
Positive Contractors works with letting agents and property managers across London and Essex. Our own team covers EICRs and electrical remedials, gas and plumbing, maintenance, decorating, flooring and fire safety, so a void becomes one job with one point of contact. We price from photos and video wherever we can, send live tracking when engineers are on the way, and return certificates, photos and invoices together.
Find out more on our landlords and agents page and our property maintenance service, or call 020 8227 0035.
We cover London and Essex, with our own engineers working every day across Chigwell, Loughton, Buckhurst Hill, Woodford, Ilford, Romford, Brentwood and Epping.