diff --git a/qubes/tests/api_admin.py b/qubes/tests/api_admin.py
index 3cff7131..c10ea375 100644
--- a/qubes/tests/api_admin.py
+++ b/qubes/tests/api_admin.py
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ class TC_00_VMs(AdminAPITestCase):
             mock.assert_called_once_with(self.vm, 'test-net')
         self.app.save.assert_called_once_with()
 
+    def test_0301_vm_property_set_vm_none(self):
+        netvm = self.app.add_new_vm('AppVM', label='red', name='test-net',
+            template='test-template', provides_network=True)
+
+        with unittest.mock.patch('qubes.vm.VMProperty.__set__') as mock:
+            value = self.call_mgmt_func(b'admin.vm.property.Set', b'test-vm1',
+                b'netvm', b'')
+            self.assertIsNone(value)
+            mock.assert_called_once_with(self.vm, '')
+        self.app.save.assert_called_once_with()
+
     def test_032_vm_property_set_vm_invalid1(self):
         with unittest.mock.patch('qubes.vm.VMProperty.__set__') as mock:
             with self.assertRaises(qubes.exc.QubesValueError):
diff --git a/qubes/vm/__init__.py b/qubes/vm/__init__.py
index d9532f53..05639f13 100644
--- a/qubes/vm/__init__.py
+++ b/qubes/vm/__init__.py
@@ -442,5 +442,9 @@ class VMProperty(qubes.property):
             untrusted_vmname = untrusted_newvalue.decode('ascii')
         except UnicodeDecodeError:
             raise qubes.exc.QubesValueError
+        if untrusted_vmname == '':
+            # allow empty VM name for setting VMProperty value, because it's
+            # string representation of None (see self._none_value)
+            return untrusted_vmname
         validate_name(None, self, untrusted_vmname)
         return untrusted_vmname