On the tenancy
The rent stayed pending until the landlord confirmed it, then it was marked paid on the date it arrived.
Commercial and residential property management in one account
Cottages and flats under the Housing Act 1988. Offices, shops and units on business leases, each with its Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 status recorded. Each property runs under its own rules in the same account: tenancies, deposits and notices for the homes; leases, rent reviews, quarter-day rent and VAT invoices for the rest.
What you stop doing with homes and units in two places
LetCompliance is residential and commercial property management software: homes and commercial units in one account, each under its own law. Cottages and flats are let on assured tenancies under the Housing Act 1988, with the tenancy agreement, the deposit, Right to Rent and Section 8 and Section 13 notices. Offices, shops and units are let on business leases, each recorded with whether the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 protects it, its rent reviews, breaks and notice deadlines, with an email 90, 30, 14, 7 and 1 days before each rent review or break notice deadline and on the day, rent on the quarter days and numbered VAT invoices where a building is opted to tax. Plans are one price for each size of portfolio, never a charge per property, a month: £7.99 for 1 property, £14.99 for up to 3, £19 for up to 10, £29 for up to 20 and £49 for any number. No VAT is added.
6reminder emails up to each rent review or break notice deadline
Missing a rent review or break notice
A notice served late can cost a review or a break. The morning email names it 90, 30, 14, 7 and 1 days before and on the day, and says where time is of the essence.
Typing a rent demand each quarter day
Rent on a lease falls due on its own schedule, and up to 50 invoices are issued at once, numbered in one series for each landlord, with VAT only where the building is opted to tax.
Adding up rent from two places
Rent marked paid on a home or a unit posts to Finance by itself, against its property, so one set of figures covers both.
Running two systems for two kinds of let
The cottages and the commercial units sit in one account, on one plan: one price for each size of portfolio, whatever the kind of let.
Who runs homes and commercial units in one account
A rural estate or farm with let cottages and converted buildings
Farm cottages on assured tenancies beside barns, yards and old stables let to businesses, on one plan, one price for the size of the estate. Holiday cottages are not run here: there is no booking calendar or channel manager.
A shop or office with a flat above
A semi-commercial building: record the flat and the shop as two properties. The flat runs as a home, and the shop as a business lease with its own rent and, if the shop is opted to tax, its own VAT.
A landlord with buy-to-lets and a few commercial units
The homes keep their tenancies, deposits and notices, and the units their leases and review dates, in one account with one set of tax figures.
Two sets of rules, one account
A home and a commercial unit are let under different laws. Each property is marked residential, HMO or commercial, and each follows its own row below.
| What the let needs | Homes: cottages, flats and houses | Commercial units: offices, shops and workshops |
|---|---|---|
| The tenancy | An assured tenancy: a home let to an individual as their only or principal home (Housing Act 1988 s.1). The agreement builder writes the periodic tenancy used in England since 1 May 2026. | A business tenancy: premises the tenant occupies for its business (Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 s.23), which cannot be an assured tenancy (Housing Act 1988 Sch 1 para 4). The lease is recorded on its Lease tab; the agreement builder is not offered. |
| How it ends | A notice on a Schedule 2 ground: Section 8 on Form 3A, drafted from the records on every paid plan. | Where the 1954 Act protects it, it carries on past the term date until ended under the Act (s.24); a lease contracted out (s.38A) ends on its date. The Lease tab records which, and shows the section 25 window for a solicitor to check. |
| Rent changes | A Section 13 notice on Form 4A, with the earliest lawful start date worked out, on every paid plan. | The lease’s own review clause: each review with its basis, its notice deadline and where it stands, and the agreed rent put on the tenancy from a rent due date. |
| The deposit | Protected within 30 days, with the Prescribed Information (Housing Act 2004 s.213), tracked with reminders. | The deposit protection rules do not reach a business tenancy, so the deposit steps are not asked. |
| Right to Rent | A check on each adult, recorded on the tenant (Immigration Act 2014). | Not asked: the check is for an agreement that grants a right to occupy premises for residential use (s.20). |
| Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms | The alarm check recorded for each tenancy (Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015). | Not asked: the Regulations cover tenancies of residential premises (reg 2). |
| Notices to the tenant | The Renters’ Rights Act information sheet, the move-in pack and the 28-day clock on a pet request. | The lease’s own notices: their dates and deadlines are recorded and reminded, never drafted. |
| VAT on the rent | Never: an option to tax does not apply to a building designed or adapted as a dwelling (VAT Notice 742A para 3.2). | Added at 20% on invoices only where you record that the building is opted to tax, from the day the option has effect (742A para 4.3), and that it holds no home. |
| When rent is due | Monthly, weekly, fortnightly or four-weekly. | On the usual quarter days (25 March, 24 June, 29 September and 25 December), quarterly from any date, monthly, half-yearly or yearly. |
| Making Tax Digital | Rent from homes you own in your own name is UK property income, sent in the quarterly updates on paid plans. | So is rent from units you own in your own name: GOV.UK works out the profit of all your lettings as one business, and the same updates carry it. |
General information, not legal or tax advice. A lease’s own terms decide its reviews, breaks and notices.
Rent on every let, from due to paid
The sample account’s lets are homes, so the pictures follow one home’s rent: Chloe Barnes’s October rent for 6 Saxby Walk, Bristol. A rent charge on a business lease, on the quarter days or its own cycle, is recorded and posted the same way.
In the year’s figures
Marked paid, it was posted to Finance as rent received for its property, and the year’s income for Making Tax Digital rose by the same amount.
Set up homes and commercial units in five steps
Bring the properties in from one spreadsheet, then add what only a lease has.
Mark each property’s type
Residential, HMO or commercial, on the property or in the spreadsheet’s type column. A commercial property gets a Lease tab, and the steps only a home needs are not asked of it.
Add the tenants, companies too
Add each tenant on the tenancy, and mark a company tenant with its company number, which its invoices print.
Record each lease’s terms and dates
On the Lease tab: the date of the lease, its 1954 Act status, the permitted use and any service charge, then each rent review, break and other date with the last day for its notice. Set the rent to the quarter days or the lease’s own cycle on the tenancy.
Set your VAT number, the option to tax and the next invoice number
Your VAT registration number is checked against HMRC’s check digits, each commercial building’s option to tax is recorded with the day it has effect, and the next invoice number carries on the numbering of the system you used before.
Import from one spreadsheet, and export for your accountant
The properties and tenants come in from one CSV, and importing it again updates rather than duplicates. On a paid plan you can email your spreadsheets or your old system’s exports to hello@letcompliance.com instead, and LetCompliance imports the properties and tenants for you, included in the plan. Finance exports a Xero-ready CSV, and the invoices download as a spreadsheet. On a paid landlord plan, each rent charge goes one way to your own Xero as a sales invoice, with the payments recorded on rent without VAT; rent that carries VAT goes once it is paid in one payment or a VAT invoice is issued for it in LetCompliance.
The quarter days are set on each tenancy after the import: the spreadsheet takes monthly, weekly, fortnightly or four-weekly rent.
The homes run under their own rules, in the same account
For the cottages and flats: the tenancy agreement for the assured periodic tenancies used in England since 1 May 2026, deposits with their Prescribed Information, Right to Rent, certificates with reminders and a score for each home, the tenant portal and inventories. Four of the tools that run across the account:
Section 8 notices
For a home, the notice on Form 3A with each ground in the statute’s words and the Ground 8 arrears worked out, on every paid plan. A commercial let is never offered it.
Sample account with made-up details, 18 Oct 2026 Rent reviews for the homes
Form 4A for each home, with the earliest lawful start date worked out, from the rent review board on every paid plan. A lease’s review stays on its Lease tab, under its own clause.
Sample account with made-up details, 18 Oct 2026 Bank statements, matched
Upload a CSV from your bank and each line is matched to a rent charge or a cost, homes and units alike, on paid plans and the trial. Nothing is recorded until you confirm it.
Sample account with made-up details, 18 Oct 2026 Making Tax Digital
Quarterly updates for UK property income sent to HMRC from the same records, on every paid plan: rent from a unit you own in your own name counts with the homes.
Sample account with made-up details, 18 Oct 2026
Every home and unit on one plan, £49 a month for any number
Plans are one price for each size of portfolio, never a charge per property, a month: £7.99 for 1 property, £14.99 for up to 3, £19 for up to 10, £29 for up to 20 and £49 for any number. A commercial unit and a home count the same. The Lease tab and its reminders come with every plan; rent invoices with paid plans and the 3-day trial; Section 8, Section 13 and Making Tax Digital with paid plans.
Commercial lease management: every lease date in one place
Each commercial unit gets a Lease tab: the lease itself, each break clause and rent review with the last day to serve its notice, and any service charge. The dates are the ones the lease gives, typed in as it writes them.
The lease record
The date of the lease, whether the 1954 Act protects it, it is contracted out of sections 24 to 28 or it is outside the Act, the permitted use, and any service charge with how often it is due.
Reviews, breaks and other dates
Each with the last day to serve its notice, who may serve it, the review basis (open market, RPI, CPI, fixed and stepped), upward only or not, whether time is of the essence, the trigger and counter-notice dates, and where it stands, from coming up to agreed or referred to an expert or arbitrator.
Reminders before each deadline
The morning email names each rent review or break notice deadline 90, 30, 14, 7 and 1 days before and on the day; the notice deadline for any other lease date 30, 7 and 1 days before and on the day; each review and break date 30 and 7 days before; the term end 90 and 30 days before; and the last day for a landlord’s section 25 notice 30, 7 and 1 days before. Every date also goes on the dashboard, and into the calendar feed of a landlord’s own account.
The term end and the 1954 Act
Once you confirm the tenant is still in occupation, the rent keeps running past the term date on any business lease, protected or holding over while a renewal is agreed, until you end the tenancy. Without that, a lease recorded as contracted out or outside the Act stops on its date. For a protected lease the section 25 window, 12 to 6 months before the term date, is shown for your solicitor to check.
A lease starting between rent days
When the lease is added, the days before its first rent day can be charged as a part period, worked out as the rent a year x days / 365 and due on the start day. Tick it or leave it; if the lease apportions it another way, change the charge after saving.
A review settled late
The agreed rent is charged from a rent due date on the tenancy, and the balancing sum for the days since the review date is worked out as a suggestion, for you to confirm, change or waive before anything is charged.
VAT invoices and credit notes
Numbered invoices in one series for each landlord, with your VAT number and VAT at 20% only where the building is opted to tax; requests for payment; credit notes that refer to the invoice they correct. Up to 50 are issued at once and up to 100 go into one PDF to print, on paid plans and the trial.
The lease schedule
Every lease on a property in one CSV of 15 columns: the property and tenant, the rent a year, when it is due and the rent per period, VAT on rent, the term’s start and end, the 1954 Act status, the next rent review with its notice date and basis, the next break with its notice date, and the service charge.
The money across both, and three questions to settle first
- Rent tracked on every tenancy and lease, with arrears worked out and a statement for each.
- Rent invoices for any tenancy or lease, with VAT only on a commercial property recorded as opted to tax.
- Bank statements uploaded as a CSV and matched line by line to rent and costs, homes and units alike.
- Finance for each property on the UK tax year, and rent by Direct Debit into your own Stripe account for a landlord’s own lets.
- The SA105 figures and Making Tax Digital updates for UK property income, with loan interest on a commercial unit in box 26 in full, not the Section 24 credit.
- Properties held in a limited company kept out of your own tax figures.
- A cottage let below the market rent, or rent free, marked as not let on commercial terms, so its costs count only up to its rent (PIM2130).
How many cottages and units do you let?
Plans are one price for each size of portfolio, never a charge per property, a month: £7.99 for 1 property, £14.99 for up to 3, £19 for up to 10, £29 for up to 20 and £49 for any number. A commercial unit and a home count the same, and every plan runs both. See every plan.
Your own ledger, or your accountant’s Xero?
Finance keeps rent and costs by property and exports a Xero-ready CSV, and the rent invoices download as a spreadsheet. On a paid landlord plan, each rent charge goes one way to your own Xero as a sales invoice, with the payments recorded on rent without VAT; rent that carries VAT goes once it is paid in one payment or a VAT invoice is issued for it in LetCompliance. LetCompliance and Xero compared, and what your accountant sees.
Who watches the lease dates?
The morning email and the dashboard carry every notice deadline, and on a landlord’s own account the calendar feed does too, so the dates reach whoever keeps the estate diary.
Commercial and residential lets: the rules in brief
What legislation.gov.uk and GOV.UK say, each with its source, read on 29 October 2026.
What are the rent quarter days?
The traditional English quarter days are 25 March (Lady Day), 24 June (Midsummer), 29 September (Michaelmas) and 25 December (Christmas), a custom a lease adopts rather than a date set by statute. Some leases use the modern quarter days, 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, so the lease decides. In Scotland the quarter days are 28 February, 28 May, 28 August and 28 November, unless the lease says otherwise.
Source: Term and Quarter Days (Scotland) Act 1990, section 1 (opens in a new tab)
When does a business tenancy carry on past its term?
When the tenant occupies the premises for its business, the tenancy does not end unless it is ended under the 1954 Act, and a landlord’s section 25 notice is given not more than twelve nor less than six months before the date it ends. A lease contracted out of sections 24 to 28 before it was granted ends on its date.
Source: Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, section 24 (opens in a new tab); Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, section 23 (opens in a new tab); Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, section 25 (opens in a new tab); Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, section 38A (opens in a new tab)
Do I charge VAT on commercial rent?
Renting land and buildings is normally exempt. Opting to tax makes the rent standard-rated from the date of the decision or a later date you specify, and the option does not apply to a building designed or adapted as a dwelling, such as a flat above a shop. You must register for VAT once your taxable turnover goes over £90,000.
Source: GOV.UK, Opting to tax land and buildings (VAT Notice 742A) (opens in a new tab); GOV.UK, How to register for VAT (opens in a new tab)
When is the tax point for rent?
For rent paid periodically, the tax point is the date you receive a payment or the date you issue a VAT invoice, whichever happens first, and a VAT invoice is normally issued within 30 days of the tax point. A request for payment fixes no tax point, so the VAT invoice can follow the payment.
Source: GOV.UK, The VAT Guide (VAT Notice 700) (opens in a new tab)
Does Making Tax Digital cover commercial rent?
Yes, for rent you receive as an individual: GOV.UK works out the profit of all your property lettings as a single business, so a shop or office you own in your own name counts with the homes. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to qualifying income over £50,000 from 6 April 2026, over £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and over £20,000 from 6 April 2028. A company files a Company Tax Return instead. The Making Tax Digital guide for landlords has the detail.
Source: GOV.UK, Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (opens in a new tab); GOV.UK, Renting out a property: paying tax (opens in a new tab)
What about a tied or below-market cottage?
Where a property is let at less than a commercial rent, its costs can be claimed only up to the rent it brings in, and a property occupied rent free is outside the property income rules altogether.
Source: HMRC Property Income Manual, PIM2130 (opens in a new tab)
Which energy standard applies?
Both: a privately rented home and a privately rented non-domestic property each need an EPC of at least band E unless a valid exemption is registered, and for non-domestic lets that has applied to every tenancy since 1 April 2023.
Source: GOV.UK, Non-domestic private rented property: minimum energy efficiency standard (opens in a new tab); GOV.UK, Domestic private rented property: minimum energy efficiency standard (opens in a new tab)
Which law makes a let a business tenancy?
A tenancy to which Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 applies cannot be an assured tenancy, so a let of premises the tenant occupies for its business is not let on the rules for homes.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Take advice from a commercial property solicitor before serving a lease notice. Moving from a desktop estate program? See the Farmplan Property Manager alternatives, LetCompliance and Re-Leased compared and software for a portfolio.
What LetCompliance does not do
- Farm business tenancies and agricultural holdings
- Grazing licences, sporting and fishing lets, wayleaves and masts
- Service charge budgets and the year-end reconciliation
- Turnover rent
- Draft leases or 1954 Act notices
- VAT returns
- Open Banking bank feeds: statements come in as CSV files
- Registered (Rent Act) rents
- The possession grounds for agricultural and employment lets: the Section 8 builder lists grounds 1, 1A, 7, 7A, 7B, 8, 10 to 15 and 17
- Residential law outside England
- Holiday lets and short lets: no booking calendar, channel manager or nightly pricing
Commercial and residential lets, the questions landlords ask
Straight answers on which law applies, the quarter days, VAT on rent, Making Tax Digital and what LetCompliance does on each side.
Still have a question?
Can one software manage both commercial and residential lets?
Yes. In LetCompliance each property is marked residential, HMO or commercial. Homes run as assured tenancies, with the agreement, the deposit, Right to Rent and Section 8 and Section 13 notices; commercial units run as business leases, with a Lease tab for the reviews, breaks and notice deadlines, rent on the quarter days and VAT invoices where a building is opted to tax. Both share the rent page, Finance and the tax figures.
Which law applies to a commercial let, and which to a home?
A home let to an individual as their only or principal home is an assured tenancy under the Housing Act 1988 (s.1). Premises the tenant occupies for its business are a business tenancy under Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (s.23), and Schedule 1 paragraph 4 of the 1988 Act says such a tenancy cannot be assured. A business tenancy carries on past its term until it is ended under the 1954 Act (s.24), unless it was contracted out under s.38A before it was granted.
Can a property be both commercial and residential?
A building can hold both, such as a shop with a flat above, and how it is let decides the rules: the flat let on its own as a home is a residential tenancy, and the shop let to a business is a business lease. A letting of the whole building to one business is worth taking advice on. In LetCompliance, record the flat and the shop as two properties when they are let separately.
What are the rent quarter days in 2026?
In 2026 the traditional English quarter days fall on Wednesday 25 March (Lady Day), Wednesday 24 June (Midsummer), Tuesday 29 September (Michaelmas) and Friday 25 December (Christmas). They are a custom a lease adopts, not a date set by statute, and some leases use the modern quarter days, 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, instead, so the lease decides. In Scotland the Term and Quarter Days (Scotland) Act 1990 sets them as 28 February, 28 May, 28 August and 28 November. LetCompliance offers rent on the usual quarter days (25 March, 24 June, 29 September and 25 December), quarterly from any date, monthly, half-yearly or yearly, so the modern quarter days are set as quarterly from 1 January.
Do I need to charge VAT on commercial rent?
Not unless you have opted to tax the building. GOV.UK’s VAT Notice 742A says renting land and buildings is normally exempt; an option to tax makes the rent standard-rated from the day it has effect (para 4.3), and it never applies to a building designed or adapted as a dwelling (para 3.2). You must register for VAT once your taxable turnover goes over £90,000. LetCompliance adds VAT at 20% only on a commercial property you record as opted, from that day.
Does Making Tax Digital apply to commercial property?
Yes, for rent you receive as an individual. GOV.UK works out the profit of all your property lettings as one business, so rent from a shop or office you own in your own name counts towards your qualifying income with the homes. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to qualifying income over £50,000 from 6 April 2026, over £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and over £20,000 from 6 April 2028. A company files a Company Tax Return instead. LetCompliance sends the quarterly updates for UK property income on every paid plan.
Can a rent review be backdated?
The lease decides: many leases make the new rent payable from the review date even when it is agreed later, and some add interest. In LetCompliance the agreed rent is charged from a rent due date on the tenancy, and the balancing sum for the days since the review date is worked out as a suggestion, for you to confirm, change or waive before anything is charged.
When should a quarterly rent invoice be sent?
When your lease asks for it. For VAT, rent paid periodically has its tax point when you receive a payment or issue a VAT invoice, whichever happens first (VAT Notice 700 para 15.9.1). LetCompliance can issue a request for payment first, which fixes no tax point, and the VAT invoice once the rent is paid, and it warns when a VAT invoice is issued more than 30 days after its tax point.
Does LetCompliance work with Xero?
Yes, one way, on every paid landlord plan (not the free plan or the trial). In Settings, Integrations, connect your own Xero organisation, then choose the properties, the income account for rent and the date to send rent due from. Each rent charge from that date, on a home or a unit, goes to Xero as a sales invoice, to a contact for each tenant. Choose a Xero bank account as well, and each payment you record in LetCompliance on rent without VAT is added to its invoice there. Rent that carries VAT, on a commercial unit recorded as opted to tax, goes to Xero once it is paid in one payment, dated the day it was paid, or once a VAT invoice is issued for it in LetCompliance, dated its tax point; rent with VAT paid in parts, with no VAT invoice issued for it in LetCompliance, is not sent. Payments on rent that carries VAT are not sent. Only rent is sent: no expenses or bills, and nothing is read back from Xero. Xero is connected from your own landlord account, not from an agency workspace. Finance also exports a Xero-ready CSV of your income and costs, and the rent invoices download as a spreadsheet for your accountant.
What about farm tenancies, grazing and tied cottages?
Farm business tenancies, agricultural holdings, grazing licences and sporting or fishing lets are not modelled, and the Section 8 builder does not list the possession grounds for agricultural or employment lets. A cottage let below the market rent, or rent free, can be marked as not let on commercial terms, so its costs count only up to its rent in your tax figures, as HMRC’s Property Income Manual sets out (PIM2130).
What does LetCompliance cost for 40 cottages and 15 units?
Professional is £49 a month for any number of properties, so 55 cottages and units cost £49 a month, with no VAT added. Every new landlord account starts with a 3-day trial and no card.
