If you run a property management company, you'll already know the accounting doesn't work like a normal trading business. Most accountants treat it like one anyway. That's usually where things start to go wrong.
I work with property management companies who run serviced accommodation on behalf of landlords, short-term, furnished lettings across residential portfolios in and around London and Hertfordshire, and I know the specific things that need to be right, and the specific things that generalist practices tend to miss.
VAT on serviced accommodation is not the same as on a normal letting
Ordinary residential letting is VAT-exempt. Serviced accommodation isn't. HMRC treats it more like hotel or guesthouse accommodation, which means it's standard-rated once you're registered, and once your turnover crosses the £90,000 threshold you need to be registered. Get this wrong and you either miss VAT you should have charged, which HMRC will eventually come looking for, or you leave money on the table because you haven't accounted for it properly from the start. My VAT returns service covers exactly this.
A rule most operators don't know exists can cut VAT on longer stays
HMRC's reduced value rule, set out in VAT Notice 709/3, means that once a single guest's continuous stay in the same room passes 28 nights, only the facilities element of the charge, at least 20% of it under HMRC's own minimum, stays taxable, with the rest falling outside the scope of VAT. Applied correctly, that works out to an effective VAT rate of around 4% on the remainder of the stay, rather than the full 20%. It only applies to one continuous stay by one guest, not a rotating string of short bookings, so it rewards genuine long-stay lets rather than ordinary turnover.
Multiple landlords need to stay properly separate
It's common for one management company to be running short-term lets on behalf of several different landlords across a portfolio, each with their own income, their own costs, and their own idea of what they're owed at the end of the month. Mixing those up, even accidentally, even just in how the bookkeeping is filed, creates a mess that takes real time to untangle later and can undermine a landlord's confidence in how their money is being handled. I keep each landlord's figures clean and separate from day one, so year-end accounts and any landlord queries can be answered properly, every time, without a scramble through shared spreadsheets.
Why this matters to you as a director
Running serviced accommodation at portfolio scale means you're accountable to every landlord whose property you manage, on top of running your own company properly. An accountant who treats your figures like a normal set of company accounts, without understanding the VAT position or where genuine savings like the 28-day rule actually apply, isn't protecting you, whatever they charge you for it. I bring genuine experience with the VAT treatment and the multi-landlord structure this sector actually involves, explained in plain terms rather than filed and forgotten.
That's the same discipline I bring to every part of the practice, built around the same five principles I hold myself to. You can read more about that on my method page.
If you want more detail on how the 28-day rule actually works, I've written it up here: VAT on serviced accommodation, the 28-day rule explained. And if you're a landlord whose rental income is approaching £30,000, it's worth knowing Making Tax Digital reaches that threshold from April 2027, I've set out what changes here. My MTD threshold checker will tell you in under a minute whether it applies. And whatever your VAT scheme, the quarterly deadlines themselves still apply, I've laid those out in this autumn's VAT quarter countdown.
How I work with management companies
Fixed fees, agreed in writing before I start, so there are no surprises for you or for the landlords whose properties you manage. A free, no-pressure discovery call to talk through your portfolio and how many landlords are involved. And if you're already well served elsewhere, I'll tell you so.
Book a call at calendly.com/daneon-dfaccounting or email me directly at daneon@dfaccounting.co.uk.