Overseas landlord management

Letting agents of non-resident landlords must register with HMRC and, unless HMRC approves gross payment, deduct basic rate tax from the net rent each quarter and account for it. There is no minimum rent below which this disappears: where an agent is involved, the scheme applies from the first pound, under HMRC's own guidance at PIM4810. And the test is your usual place of abode, not your tax residence, so it can catch people who still count as UK resident under the Statutory Residence Test, per PIM4850.

Inside the 12% we register, calculate, file the annual return and issue your NRL6 certificate by 5 July each year, so your own tax return has the paper it needs. Each quarterly HMRC submission is charged at £60. If you want to receive rent gross, we guide you through the NRL1 application, and once HMRC approves, we pay gross and the quarterly deductions stop.

Nottingham City Council's selective and additional licensing schemes expect a licence holder who can actually be reached: in practice the holder must usually reside in the UK or be a UK registered company. A landlord in Dubai or Toronto cannot sensibly hold one. Where your property needs a licence, we act as the named holder under a written agreement Trent Law Solicitors has drafted, and that standing is included in the 12% rather than sold as an extra. Handling the licence application itself is £240 for a selective licence or £280 for an HMO licence; the council charges its own application fee on top, and we tell you that figure for your address before anything is submitted.

Whether you need a licence at all depends on which council governs your street, not on the word Nottingham in the address: West Bridgford, for instance, sits in Rushcliffe, which runs no selective or additional scheme at all. Our Areas we cover page maps every area to its council.

The 12% includes the entire Fully Managed service: rent collection and arrears, repairs through trusted contractors, inspections with photographed reports, the compliance calendar, check out, deposit resolution and the annual rent appraisal. Reporting is written and everything is signable and payable from where you live: statements monthly, decisions by email, never a document that needs you in the country.

A worked example, on a rent of £1,200 a month: management at 12% is £144 a month, HMRC submissions £60 a quarter, and if the address needs a selective licence, £240 once to us for the application plus the council's own fee. Every figure includes any VAT, and there is nothing else on the list.

Many of our overseas landlords started as our sourcing clients: we found the property, Trent Law did the conveyancing, Trent Finance arranged the buy to let mortgage, and management began at completion. If you are still at the buying stage, the Buying from overseas page sets out the whole route, including the stamp duty surcharge that applies to non-resident buyers.