Hendon · NW4
Accountants in Hendon
Chartered accountants for NW4 — small businesses, landlords letting to students and professionals, and the companies around Brent Cross.
Hendon has a large student population and a correspondingly large private rented sector, which means a lot of the tax work here involves property: landlords with houses in multiple occupation, people letting a former home, and owners deciding whether to hold property personally or through a company. The commercial side around Brent Cross brings a different mix — retail, logistics and service businesses.
We act for individuals and businesses across NW4 and West Hendon.
Landlords & HMOs
Rental accounts, allowable costs and the finance-cost restriction.
Capital gains on a sale
Reported and paid within 60 days — the deadline is easy to miss.
Small business accounts
Company and sole trader, with VAT and payroll where needed.
Company vs personal ownership
Modelled including the cost of moving property in.
Letting property in Hendon
Mortgage interest on residential property is no longer deducted from rental income — you get a basic-rate tax reducer instead. For a higher-rate taxpayer that means the profit you are taxed on can be well above the money you actually have. Properties let room by room raise further questions about which costs are allowable and how the letting is treated. We will set out where you stand before deciding whether anything should change.
Selling: the 60-day rule
A gain on UK residential property must be reported and paid within 60 days of completion, separately from your annual return. The calculation needs your original purchase costs and every capital improvement since, so it is much easier if we know a sale is coming than if we hear about it afterwards.
Business rates in Hendon
Hendon falls under the London Borough of Barnet, so that is who bills your business rates and who you deal with on licensing and planning.
Business rates are set nationally but billed and administered by the borough, along with licensing and planning. It is the part of local cost that people are most often wrong about, usually in one of two directions: paying a bill that small business rate relief should have removed, or assuming relief applies when a second property has quietly cancelled it.
Hendon mixes residential streets with commercial units along the main roads, and the rateable values vary widely across very short distances. If the valuation looks out of line with comparable units nearby, that is a checkable question rather than a fixed one.
Rates do not go on a tax return, but they belong in the same conversation — they are a fixed cost that can be appealed, relieved or reduced, and it is worth knowing which before you sign a lease.
What comes up in Hendon
A lot of the work here is company work — owner-managed businesses with staff, and the payroll, pension and PAYE obligations that come with them — alongside personal tax for directors taking a mix of salary and dividends.
The split between the two is the single decision that moves the most tax for most owner-managers, and it is not a fixed formula: it moves with thresholds, with pension contributions, and with how much you actually need to take out.
Student lets and houses in multiple occupation
The university presence in Hendon means a substantial part of the local letting market is rooms rather than whole properties, and letting by the room is a different business from letting a flat — legally, administratively and for tax.
Licensing is a borough matter and it has teeth
Houses in multiple occupation require a licence in defined circumstances, and boroughs can extend licensing more widely within their area. Letting an unlicensed property where a licence was required is an offence, and it can also expose you to a rent repayment order — meaning tenants recovering rent already paid. The licence fee itself is a deductible cost; the penalty for not having one is not.
The property may be assessed differently
Depending on how a property is arranged and occupied, individual units within an HMO can end up separately assessed for council tax, which changes both the bill and who is liable for it. This catches landlords who have converted a house without considering it, and it is worth establishing before the conversion rather than after.
More rooms means more of everything
Higher gross yields come with higher costs: bills usually included, more wear, more voids between academic years, more management. The tax follows the actual profit, so the deductible costs matter more here than in a single let — and the record-keeping has to be good enough to show which costs belong to the property rather than to you.
Frequently asked
I let one property. Do I need an accountant?+
Not necessarily, but you do need to report the income if it is over £1,000 gross, and the finance-cost rules mean the tax rarely matches what the profit looks like. A single property is a small job for us and usually pays for itself in what gets claimed correctly.
Do I need to come to your office?+
Not unless you want to. Most of our Hendon clients send documents electronically and we speak by phone or video. If you would rather sit down with someone, our Finchley office is a short journey across to Finchley Central.
What does an accountant cost?+
We agree a fixed fee before any work starts, based on what your business actually needs rather than an hourly rate that neither of us can predict. Simple sole-trader returns cost considerably less than a trading limited company with payroll and VAT.
Can you take over from my current accountant?+
Yes, and it is straightforward. We write to them for professional clearance and your records, and handle the transfer of your HMRC authorisations. You do not need to have an awkward conversation — though it is polite to tell them.
Salary or dividends — what is the right split?+
There is no fixed answer, and anyone who gives you one without seeing your figures is guessing. It depends on your profit, what you need to draw, whether you are making pension contributions, and where the thresholds sit this year. We model it annually rather than setting it once.
Do you run payroll as well?+
Yes — PAYE, auto-enrolment pensions and CIS where it applies. For most Hendon clients with staff it sits alongside the accounts rather than being a separate arrangement.
Do I need a licence to let rooms in my house?+
It depends on the size and arrangement of the property and on the borough’s own scheme, which can be wider than the national baseline. Because the consequences of getting it wrong include a rent repayment order as well as a penalty, this is one to confirm with the council directly rather than infer. Once you know, the fee and the associated costs are deductible against the rental income.
Will the council tax change if I convert to an HMO?+
It can. Depending on how the property is arranged, individual units may be separately banded, which changes both the amount and who is responsible for paying. It is far better to know before the work is done, because the layout itself can influence the answer.
Is a student let more profitable than a normal one?+
Often on gross yield, frequently not by as much as expected once the costs are counted. Bills are usually included, turnover is annual, voids are predictable but real, and wear is higher. It can be a good business. What it is not is the same business as a single let with a bigger number on top, and modelling it that way is how people are disappointed.
Local to you
Chartered accountants, just up the road.
We are based in Finchley and work across North London. Come in, call, or do the whole thing by email — whichever suits you.
Or call 07480 281548