There is no single CIS answer for a property maintenance company.
The Construction Industry Scheme is not applied to trades. It is applied to operations. Each type of work is tested against the legislation on its own, which is why one maintenance invoice can carry work that is inside the scheme and work that is outside it on consecutive lines.
Anyone who tells you maintenance is in, or maintenance is out, has not read the list.
One invoice, two treatments
Inside CIS
- Redecoration, internal or external. Painting and decorating is a named construction operation
- Structural repair, from a cracked lintel to a failed roof timber
- Plastering, joinery and brickwork repairs
- Repair and installation of heating, drainage, sanitation, water supply and power systems
- Window and door replacement where the fabric of the building is altered
Outside CIS
- Routine clearance of gutters, drains and sewage pipes
- General cleaning, internal or external, where no construction work is attached
- Installation of security systems, including alarms and CCTV
- Delivery of materials with no work carried out
- Repair of appliances and other goods rather than the building itself
So a single visit to a block of flats might involve clearing the gutters, which is outside, then repointing the parapet, which is inside. The invoice needs to show both.
The mixed contract point, which is the one to get right
The line by line test is not the end of it. Where a single contract genuinely covers both construction and non-construction work, HMRC’s mixed contract treatment can pull the whole contract into the scheme rather than only the construction element.
That matters most for the firms with the biggest contracts. A four-year planned maintenance agreement with a housing association, covering cleaning, grounds work, reactive repairs and a decorating programme, is one contract. How it is drafted and how the work is instructed can change the answer for everything under it.
This is worth looking at properly with the contract in front of you, rather than assuming your cleaning income is safe because cleaning is outside the scheme.
Reactive and planned work do not earn the same money
Reactive callouts are priced by the hour and quoted from memory. Planned works are priced by programme and quoted from a schedule. The two have different margins, and almost every firm we take on is surprised by which one is carrying the other.
Travel is usually where reactive work loses its money. Four callouts across a city in a day is maybe five chargeable hours out of an eight hour van day, and the unbilled three hours are real cost sitting in wages.
If your accounts show one revenue line called maintenance, you cannot see any of this. Split reactive from planned at the point the work order is raised, and the picture changes within a quarter.
Recurring income is not the same as earned income
Service charge funded contracts and annual agreements are often billed quarterly in advance. The cash arrives before the work happens, which flatters both the bank balance and the profit figure if nobody adjusts for it.
Deferred income takes the unearned part off this year’s profit and puts it where it belongs. On a firm with several hundred thousand pounds of contract billing, that adjustment moves the corporation tax bill by a serious amount.
Costing across sites
A maintenance company runs hundreds of small jobs rather than a handful of big ones, so the costing has to work at work-order level. Labour, materials, subcontractors and travel against each property, rolled up to each contract.
Do that and you can see the site that costs you money every month. Without it, you find out at the point of renewal.
What we do
CIS split correctly across your work, including verification, deductions and monthly returns where you use subcontractors, which most maintenance firms do.
Contract review on the CIS and VAT position before you sign a framework, not after.
Deferred income and revenue recognition on recurring contracts.
Work-order level costing, so reactive and planned margins are visible separately.
Cash flow planning around the gap between doing the work and being paid by a managing agent.
Plus the ordinary compliance. The routine compliance runs alongside all of that. Accounts, corporation tax, VAT, payroll and self assessment.
Who we work with
UK property maintenance limited companies turning over between £500,000 and £5 million, working for housing associations, managing agents, landlords and commercial clients.
Common questions
Is property maintenance inside CIS?
Some of it. Decorating and structural repair are inside. Routine drain clearance and general cleaning are outside. It is decided by the work, not by your trade.
Do I have to split my invoices?
Yes, where a job covers both. A single line saying “maintenance works” invites the contractor to apply CIS to all of it.
What about a contract that covers everything?
That is where the mixed contract treatment comes in and the whole contract can be brought into the scheme. Send us the contract before you sign it.
Does the VAT reverse charge apply?
It follows CIS scope. Work inside the scheme, invoiced to a contractor who is not the end user, is reverse charged. Work outside it is not.
We pay subcontractors. Are we a contractor?
If you pay them for construction operations, yes, with verification and monthly returns to match.
Book a call and bring your largest maintenance contract. We will go through it line by line and tell you which parts of it CIS reaches.
Common questions
Does CIS apply to property maintenance companies?
The Construction Industry Scheme is not applied to trades. It is applied to operations. Each type of work is tested against the legislation on its own, which is why one maintenance invoice can carry work that is inside the scheme and work that is outside it on consecutive lines. Anyone who tells you maintenance is in, or maintenance is out, has not read the list.
Does the VAT domestic reverse charge apply to property maintenance companies?
It follows the CIS answer above. Where the work falls inside CIS and your customer is VAT registered, registered under CIS and is not an end user, the reverse charge applies and you do not charge VAT. Where the work falls outside CIS, or the customer is an end user or a homeowner, you charge VAT as normal. Two jobs in the same week can be treated differently.