Letting agent fees
Letting agent fees are allowable expenses you can claim against your rental income. This includes all fees your agent charges for managing your properties and finding tenants.
What agent fees are allowable
You can claim all fees charged by your letting agent for services related to your rental business:
- Monthly management fees for rent collection and tenant management
- Tenant find fees for advertising and finding new tenants
- Renewal fees for arranging lease renewals
- Check-in and check-out fees
- Inventory fees
- Any other charges for managing your rental properties
These fees are allowable because they're incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of your rental business. HMRC specifically lists "letting agent fees and management fees" as allowable expenses in their guidance on rental income.
Which expense category to use
All letting agent fees use the same category: Legal, management and other professional fees.
When you upload agent statements to Provestor, the AI automatically categorises agent fees correctly. If you're entering fees manually, choose this category.
See Which income or expense category should I use? for complete guidance on all expense categories.
How agent fees appear on statements
Your letting agent's monthly statement typically shows their fees as deductions from the rent they've collected. The statement will list:
- Gross rent received from tenants
- Agent management fee (deducted)
- Any other agent charges (deducted)
- Net payment transferred to you
When you record transactions from the statement, you'll record both the gross rent (as income) and the agent fees (as expenses). Don't record just the net payment — that would miss the individual transactions Making Tax Digital requires.
See Recording from agent statements for detailed guidance on processing agent statements.
Related articles
- Recording from agent statements — How to record income and expenses from agent statements
- Allowable expenses — Complete guide to what you can and cannot claim
- Which income or expense category should I use? — Guidance on all expense categories