Landlords with a substantial portfolio are usually running a real business, but very few are set up as one. Income follows whoever happens to be named on the deeds, there is no written agreement, and nobody is entirely sure which properties belong to the business and which do not.

That affects how the income is taxed, what happens when one of you dies, and whether the business would be recognised as a business at all if it were ever questioned.

This report examines whether you are running a business and whether a partnership exists between you, then sets out in full what operating properly as one would mean.

Doing it properly means a written agreement, a partnership registered with HMRC and filing its own return, and profits allocated by that agreement rather than by whose name is on the deeds. It also settles what happens when one of you dies or wants out. What it does not do on its own is secure business property relief: letting is usually treated as investment for inheritance tax however large it is, which is why the report tells you where you actually stand.