27 January 2026
Reading void-to-repair lag from request timestamps
A void should produce a burst of jobs against one address, then silence. When the same address keeps appearing in the responsive log after the tenancy start date, either the void standard was thin or the new tenant is reporting unfinished work as ‘repairs’.
We ask landlords for a void-end or tenancy-start date alongside the request extract. Without it, we can still spot addresses with a dense cluster of jobs in a short window, but we cannot say whether that cluster was planned works or a chaotic first month.
One West Country association we briefed had a tidy void process on paper and a responsive queue full of ‘no carpets’, ‘white goods not working’, and ‘mould in bedroom’ within fourteen days of sign-up. The charts did not accuse the void team. They showed the volume and the trades so the two desks could sit with the same page.
Priority codes often fail here. A new tenant’s first week is urgent to them and routine to a scheduler who is chasing leaks in occupied blocks. We leave priority as the landlord recorded it and add a simple count of jobs in the first thirty days after tenancy start, where that date exists.
If void works live in a separate contractor system, say so at intake. Mixing those jobs into the responsive extract without a flag will make occupied estates look quieter than they are and empty homes look like chronic complainers.