Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies: A Practical Guide to Void Periods
If you manage rental property in Birmingham or Stoke-on-Trent, storage for landlords between tenancies gives you somewhere secure to keep furniture, fixtures and an outgoing tenant’s belongings while you move from a check-out inventory to a check-in inventory, without leaving an empty property full of clutter or paying to store things you only need for a few weeks. We run container storage units at both our branches, in sizes from 5ft up to 40ft, with drive-up access, forklift assistance for heavier furniture, and 24 hour manned security watching the site around the clock. That combination tends to make the gap between tenancies shorter, cheaper and a lot less stressful.
A void period is the industry term for the time a property sits empty between one tenant moving out and the next one moving in. It sounds simple on paper. In practice it is usually the busiest, most pressure filled part of managing a rental property, because you are juggling a check-out inspection, cleaning, repairs, sometimes redecorating, a check-in inspection for the new tenant, and a deposit deadline, often all within the same two or three week window. Anything that slows that process down costs you money, because an empty property earns no rent. Storage for landlords between tenancies exists to take one of those pressures away, by giving you somewhere to put things quickly so the property can be cleared, cleaned and ready for the next inventory without delay.
What a Void Period Is and Why Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies Matters
Most landlords and letting agents already know what a void period costs in lost rent, but the knock-on effects are often bigger than the headline figure. A property that sits half full of an old tenant’s belongings cannot be cleaned properly. A property that cannot be cleaned cannot be photographed for new listings. A property that cannot be listed cannot be viewed, and a property that cannot be viewed takes longer to re-let. Every stage depends on the one before it, so a delay at the start of a void period tends to stretch the whole thing out.
This is where storage for landlords between tenancies earns its place in a letting routine rather than being an occasional extra. If you can clear a property within a day or two of the outgoing tenant leaving, rather than waiting for a skip, a van, or a convenient weekend, you keep the whole changeover moving. We are a short drive from the centre of Birmingham and from Stoke-on-Trent, so a van loaded straight after a check-out can usually be unloaded into a unit the same day, with drive-up access meaning you reverse up to the door rather than carrying items through a reception or down a corridor.
It also changes how you handle uncertainty. Void periods are not always predictable. A tenant might give less notice than expected, a new tenant’s move-in date might slip by a week, or a sale might fall through and leave a property briefly vacant again. Renting a storage unit on a short, flexible basis means you are not locked into a long-term solution for what is, by definition, a temporary situation. You take a unit for as long as the void lasts and nothing longer.
There is also a simple cash flow argument for storage for landlords between tenancies that often gets missed. Every extra day a property sits empty is a day of rent you will not get back, no matter how the eventual tenancy is structured. If storing furniture and belongings for two or three weeks shaves even a few days off the time it takes to get a property re-let, the cost of the unit is usually covered several times over by the rent you have protected. Treat storage as part of the void period budget rather than an avoidable extra and the decision tends to make itself.
How Storage for Landlords During a Void Period Speeds Up Check-out and Check-in Inventories
A check-out inventory is the inspection carried out when a tenant leaves, comparing the condition of the property against the check-in inventory taken when they moved in. It is the document that decides whether a deposit deduction is fair, and it only works well if it is done promptly, on a property that has been cleared of the outgoing tenant’s possessions and any items that were never part of the original let. A check-in inventory is the same process in reverse, carried out just before a new tenant takes the keys, and it sets the baseline that the next check-out will eventually be measured against.
The problem many landlords and letting agents run into is timing. An outgoing tenant leaves belongings behind, intentionally or not. Furniture that came with a furnished tenancy needs to be stored somewhere while the property is redecorated before the next inventory. A new tenant’s move-in date is fixed, but the property is not ready, because there is still a sofa in the lounge and boxes in the spare room. Storage for landlords between tenancies solves this directly. You clear the property into a unit as soon as the check-out inventory is signed off, which lets cleaners, contractors and photographers in immediately, and that in turn lets you book the check-in inventory for the new tenant without a last minute scramble.
For letting agents managing several properties at once, this matters even more. A missed slot for a check-out inspection or a late check-in can push every other appointment back that week. Having a nearby unit to clear a property into, rather than relying on a tenant to remove items on their own schedule, keeps your diary under your control rather than someone else’s.
Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies and Deposit Scheme Rules
Tenancy deposits in England and Wales have to be protected in one of three government backed schemes: the Deposit Protection Service (DPS), mydeposits, or the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS). These schemes exist to hold the deposit fairly and to provide a dispute resolution service if landlord and tenant cannot agree on deductions at the end of a tenancy. According to gov.uk’s guidance on deposit protection schemes, a deposit has to be protected within 30 days of receiving it, and the schemes come in two forms: custodial, where the scheme itself holds the money for the whole tenancy, and insured, where the landlord or agent holds the deposit but pays into the scheme for insurance cover. The same gov.uk page sets out a 10 day window for returning an agreed amount once landlord and tenant have reached agreement on deductions, and flags that private renting rules are due to change from 1 May 2026, which is worth keeping an eye on if you manage lets that run past that date.
Separately, gov.uk’s page on private renting deposits sets out what a landlord can actually deduct for, generally unpaid rent or damage beyond normal wear and tear, and describes a typical return window of five to ten days once an amount has been agreed. That page is useful for understanding your obligations around returning money fairly, though it does not go into the detail of how check-in and check-out inventories are carried out, which is a process each scheme and most letting agents handle through their own paperwork rather than through government guidance.
The difference between a custodial and an insured scheme is worth understanding, because it affects how you manage the deposit day to day, even if it does not change how you handle storage itself. With a custodial scheme, the scheme holds the full deposit for the length of the tenancy and releases it once both sides agree, or once a dispute is resolved. With an insured scheme, you or your agent hold the deposit directly and pay into the scheme for cover, which means you need your own clear process for keeping that money separate and ready to return. Either way, the obligation to protect the deposit within 30 days and to resolve any dispute fairly is the same, and in both cases, physical evidence of a property’s condition at check-out carries real weight if a disagreement goes to adjudication.
Where storage comes in is straightforward but often overlooked. If a deposit deduction is disputed, you may need to produce evidence, which can include the items themselves, not just photographs of them. Damaged furniture, stained carpets that have been lifted, or fixtures that were removed without permission are all easier to evidence convincingly if you still have them rather than having sent everything to the tip the same week the tenant left. Storage for landlords between tenancies gives you a practical way to hold onto that evidence for as long as a dispute might realistically run, rather than making an irreversible decision under time pressure.
Protection Deadlines and Storage for Landlords Managing a Deposit Dispute
The protection deadlines set out by gov.uk are about the money, not the property, but they still shape how quickly you need to act around a void period. You have 30 days to protect a deposit once you receive it, which in practice means the admin side of a new tenancy needs to happen fast, often in the same window as the check-in inventory and the move. If a dispute arises at the end of a tenancy, a scheme’s resolution process can take a number of weeks to conclude, and during that time it helps enormously to have kept the disputed items somewhere secure rather than disposed of them.
This is one of the clearest, most concrete reasons landlords and letting agents turn to storage between tenancies rather than just skipping unwanted items. A sofa with a stain the tenant disputes, a mattress with damage beyond fair wear and tear, or white goods that were supposed to stay with the property but didn’t, can all sit safely in a unit at our Birmingham or Stoke-on-Trent branch while a dispute is resolved. Both sites run 24 hour CCTV monitoring and sit on secure gated premises, so items held as evidence are kept in the same condition they were found in, which matters if a scheme adjudicator ever needs to see them.
Storing a Former Tenant’s Abandoned Belongings: Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies
Abandoned belongings are one of the more awkward parts of managing a void period. Tenants leave items behind for all sorts of reasons, sometimes genuinely forgotten, sometimes left because moving them was inconvenient, and occasionally because a tenancy ended in a hurry. Whatever the cause, landlords have a legal responsibility to handle those items reasonably rather than simply throwing them away, and that usually means holding onto them for a reasonable period in case the former tenant comes back for them.
That responsibility is much easier to meet with somewhere proper to put things. Rather than stacking an ex-tenant’s belongings in a garage, a spare bedroom, or a corner of the property you are trying to re-let, storage for landlords between tenancies lets you box everything up, label it clearly, and move on with preparing the property while the former tenant’s items sit safely out of the way. Our units are ground floor with drive-up access, so loading a van’s worth of someone else’s possessions and unloading them straight into a unit is a job that takes an hour or two, not a full day of awkward carrying.
We also sell packing supplies on site, including boxes, bubble wrap, tape and locks, which is useful when you are clearing a property quickly and don’t have packing materials to hand. Being able to pick up what you need at the same time as moving items into a unit saves a separate trip, particularly if you are clearing a property on the same day as a check-out inspection.
This approach also protects you. If a former tenant does come back asking about belongings weeks or months later, having kept them in a secure, dated storage arrangement is a far stronger position than having to explain that items were disposed of without proper notice. It is a small amount of ongoing cost against a potentially much larger dispute, and most landlords find it a sensible trade.
A simple system makes this easier to manage well. Box items by room, write the property address and the date of the check-out inspection on each box, and keep a short note of what you have stored and why. It takes a few extra minutes at the point you are already clearing the property, and it means that if a query comes in later, whether from the former tenant or as part of a deposit dispute, you can find exactly what you need without having to search through an unlabelled unit.
Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies When Redecorating or Swapping Furniture
Furnished and part furnished lets create a particular challenge during a void period. If you are redecorating, replacing flooring, or giving a property a general refresh between tenancies, you usually need to clear furniture out of the way first, and you may be swapping some pieces for new ones rather than putting everything back. Leaving furniture in a half decorated, unoccupied property is not ideal. It can get damaged by dust, paint, or building work, and an empty property with furniture still inside is simply more exposed, since there is no tenant there day to day to notice if something isn’t right.
Storage for landlords between tenancies solves this cleanly. Move the furniture out before work starts, keep the property empty and easy for contractors to work in, then move the right pieces back once decorating is finished. If you keep a consistent style of furniture across several properties, as many landlords with furnished portfolios do, a unit also gives you somewhere to store spare pieces between lets rather than buying new items every time a tenancy changes.
For larger changeovers, our forklift assistance and easy lorry access make a real difference. Bulky items like wardrobes, sofa beds and dining sets are awkward to move by hand, and if you are using a hired van or a contractor’s lorry to shift furniture in one trip, having a site that can handle that kind of vehicle without a struggle saves time on what is usually an already tight schedule. Both our Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent sites are set up for this kind of commercial style access, not just car loads.
Storage for Letting Agents and Landlords Between Tenancies Managing Multiple Properties
A single landlord with one or two properties can usually absorb the occasional awkward void period. A letting agent managing a portfolio across Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent or the surrounding areas does not have that luxury, because several properties can hit a void at the same time, and each one needs clearing, storing and preparing on its own timetable. Storage for landlords between tenancies, used consistently rather than as a one-off, becomes part of a wider operational routine rather than an emergency fix.
Having a unit, or several units, on a rolling basis means you are not negotiating storage from scratch every time a tenancy ends. You know roughly what size unit a typical changeover needs, you know the drive-up access means loading and unloading does not need extra staff, and you know the site is covered by 24 hour manned security and CCTV, so items from several different properties can sit there safely without a dedicated member of staff needing to check on them constantly.
This also helps when a property’s contents need to be kept separate and clearly identified, which matters if items from more than one address end up in storage at the same time, for example during a particularly busy changeover period. Clear labelling and keeping a simple record of which unit holds which property’s items avoids confusion later, particularly if a deposit query comes up weeks after the items went into storage. If you manage several properties across both our branch areas, it is worth speaking to our team about setting up storage as a standing arrangement rather than booking it reactively each time, since that tends to be both simpler to manage and better value over a year of lettings.
If your portfolio spans both cities, having a unit at each branch rather than trying to use one site for everything usually works out more practical. A property in or around Birmingham being cleared on a Tuesday does not need to wait for a van to travel across to Stoke-on-Trent, and the same applies in reverse. Keeping storage local to where each property sits keeps loading times short and means whoever is doing the clearance, whether that is you, a contractor, or a member of staff, is not spending half the day driving between sites.
What Size Unit You Need: Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies, Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent
Getting the unit size right matters, because too small a unit means a second trip or a cramped, poorly organised space, while too large a unit means paying for room you are not using. For storage for landlords between tenancies, the right size usually depends on what stage of the changeover you are dealing with.
A 5ft unit is often enough for a handful of boxes, a former tenant’s leftover belongings, or a small amount of deposit dispute evidence such as a mattress or a few damaged items. A 10ft unit suits a single room’s worth of furniture, which covers a lot of redecorating jobs where you are clearing one room at a time, or a smaller one bedroom property’s full contents during a short void. A 20ft unit comfortably holds the contents of a two or three bedroom furnished let, including sofas, beds, wardrobes and white goods, which makes it the size most landlords reach for during a full property clearance. A 40ft unit suits letting agents clearing larger properties or handling more than one changeover at once, where several rooms’ worth of furniture and fixtures need to go into storage together.
If you are not sure which size fits your situation, our room by room guide to choosing the right storage unit size breaks it down by room type and typical item count, which is a useful starting point before you book. You can also just call ahead and describe what you are clearing. We deal with this kind of enquiry regularly and can usually suggest the right size over the phone rather than you having to guess and risk paying for more space than you need.
It is also worth thinking ahead rather than booking the smallest unit that will just about fit. A void period rarely goes exactly to plan, and if a check-in date slips or a redecorating job takes longer than expected, having a little extra room in your unit means you are not scrambling to find a second space at short notice. Sizing up slightly, particularly for a 20ft unit used for a full furnished clearance, tends to be a small extra cost against the hassle of outgrowing a unit midway through a changeover.
Access, Security and Practicalities for Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies
Beyond unit size, the practical details of how a storage site runs tend to matter just as much, particularly when you are working to a tight changeover schedule. Every unit at both our branches is ground floor, so there are no lifts, stairs or narrow corridors slowing down a move. Drive-up access means you park directly outside your unit and load straight from a van or lorry, which on a day when you might be clearing a property, running a check-out inspection, and prepping for a check-in all within a few hours, saves time that actually matters.
For bulkier jobs, forklift assistance and easy lorry access mean you are not restricted to car sized loads. This is particularly useful for letting agents and landlords moving furnished let furniture, white goods, or several rooms’ worth of items in one go, where a hired lorry is more practical than multiple car trips. Packing supplies, including boxes, bubble wrap, tape and locks, are available on site too, so a last minute need for extra boxes or a replacement lock does not mean a separate trip to a shop.
Security is where we tend to stand out from a typical storage option. Our sites run 24 hour manned security and 24 hour CCTV monitoring, and both branches sit behind secure gated premises, which is a higher standard than most storage providers offer. For landlords and letting agents storing items that could become deposit dispute evidence, or simply storing a tenant’s possessions that are not yours to lose, that level of security is not a nice extra, it is the main reason to choose a proper storage facility over leaving items in an empty property or a makeshift space. It is also part of why we have built a reputation for five star Google reviews from customers who have used us for exactly this kind of changeover storage.
Our Birmingham storage facility sits at 25 to 39 Small Heath Highway, Birmingham, B10 0HR, and our Stoke-on-Trent storage facility is based at the Old Gas Works, Etruscan Street, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 5PQ. Both are easy to reach from the surrounding areas, which matters if you manage properties spread across a wider patch rather than a single postcode. If you are storing household items specifically, rather than commercial stock, our personal storage option is worth a look, and if you are managing lets as part of a wider letting or property business, our business storage for landlords and letting agents page covers the commercial side of what we offer in more detail. For furniture specifically, we also have dedicated pages on furniture storage in Birmingham city centre and furniture storage in Stoke-on-Trent, both useful if furniture is the main thing you are clearing during a changeover.
Common Questions About Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies
Q: How Quickly Can We Set Up Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies?
A: Usually the same day. Because our units are ground floor with drive-up access, there is no need to book a lift slot or arrange special access in advance. Call ahead, tell us roughly what you are storing and for how long, and in most cases you can load a van straight after a check-out inspection and have it unloaded into a unit within the hour.
Q: Is Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies Worth It for a Short Void?
A: Yes, for most changeovers it is. A short void, even just a couple of weeks between tenants, often still involves clearing an outgoing tenant’s belongings, prepping the property, and getting it ready for a check-in inventory. Renting a unit short term is usually far cheaper than the knock-on cost of a delayed re-let, and you are not committed to a long contract, so you only pay for the time you actually use.
Q: Can We Use Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies for Just a Few Items?
A: Yes. Our smallest units start at 5ft, which suits a handful of boxes, a few pieces of furniture, or items being kept specifically as deposit dispute evidence. You do not need a full property’s worth of contents to make storage worthwhile between tenancies.
Q: Do You Offer Storage for Landlords Between Tenancies on a Rolling Monthly Basis?
A: Yes. Many of the letting agents and landlords we work with use storage on a rolling basis rather than a one-off booking, particularly if they manage several properties and expect regular changeovers throughout the year. Get in touch with our team and we can talk through a setup that fits how often you are likely to need it.
If you have a property coming up for a changeover, or you are planning ahead for a void period you know is on the way, give us a call. Birmingham landlords and agents can reach us on 0121 312 3907 or [email protected], and our Stoke-on-Trent branch is on 01782 906 565 or [email protected]. Tell us roughly what you are clearing and how long you expect to need storage for, and we will help you work out the right unit size and get it sorted before the next inventory is due.
