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LetComplianceLandlord & property management software

Help centre: Letting agents

How do landlord statements and the client money report work?

Statements show each landlord client what came in, what went out and what is owed, per property and per period. The client money report pulls the client money position into the shape a Client Money Protection scheme asks for.

Statements

Rent received, fees deducted, expenses paid on the landlord’s behalf, and the balance. Per property, so a client with four properties gets four intelligible sections rather than one net figure they have to trust. If your agency is registered for VAT, VAT is added to your fees and a statement with fees is issued as a numbered VAT invoice for them.

Why per property matters commercially

The statement is the main thing a landlord client actually reads. A clear one keeps clients, and an unclear one is why clients start asking what they are paying you for.

Your own fees

Your management fee is taken off each rent as it is marked paid: at the property’s own rate if it has one, otherwise the fee on the client record (none on a Let-only fee or No fee), otherwise the default in Agency settings. A client’s fixed fee is taken once a month for each property. A letting fee is taken once for each new tenancy, from the first rent received on it. VAT is added to each fee when you are registered for it. A Management fee or Letting agent fee entry in Finance on a client’s property would take the fee off the landlord a second time, so it is saved only when you say it was paid to someone else, such as a block managing agent, and that answer is recorded in the audit log.

Money already on a statement

A property whose rent, costs or fees are on an issued or paid statement cannot be deleted, because deleting it would take that money back off the landlord’s next statement. Archive it instead: it stays on its statements and in the client money report. A landlord client cannot be deleted either once a statement names them, rent, costs or a kept holding deposit is recorded on their properties, or they have been sent terms of business, an approval question or updates, or given a portal link: set the client to Ended instead, which keeps every record. A client with an opening balance has it cleared on the client page first, by an owner or an admin. A draft that counts an entry deleted since it was drawn has to be redrawn before it is issued or sent.

Paying landlords

Payments, under Client money in the left menu, lists what each landlord is owed from their issued statements and draws up a payment file for you to pay them from your own bank. Mark each statement paid once the money has gone. The fees you move to your office account are recorded there too. Adding a landlord’s bank details and downloading the payment file are for the owner or an admin, and need two-step sign-in: a code from an authenticator app, set up in Settings, Security.

The client money report

In England, a letting or managing agent who holds client money has to belong to a Client Money Protection scheme (the Client Money Protection Schemes for Property Agents (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc.) Regulations 2019, regulation 3), and the scheme wants a periodic view of the money you hold against what you owe. The report assembles that from the ledger rather than from a spreadsheet somebody maintains by hand.

Reconciling the client account

Reconcile client account sets the balance on your client account’s bank statement beside the cash book and each landlord’s ledger on a day you choose, lists every difference with what explains it, and keeps the month you sign off with its report.

What it does not do

It holds no client money and pays no landlord: the money moves through your own bank. It does not replace your accountant or your scheme membership. It produces the numbers; the obligations remain yours.

Running a small agency? Read what software small letting agents use, and what the agency plans cost.

Where this lives

Landlord statements.

Open it in LetCompliance

Still stuck? Ask LetCompliance directly. A person reads it.