Readers forum: House rental

I have a new client who is already VAT registered due to other business interests. He is starting a new venture based on the following model. He will rent three or four-bedroom houses from the owners on 12-month leases which will automatically roll forward if both parties want to continue with the arrangement. He will then find three or four separate long-term tenants for each bedroom charging each a rent that will obviously produce a profit. The advantage for the property owner is that he is only dealing with one tenant (my client) rather than three or four.

First the charges made to each separate tenant are presumably exempt from VAT as rental income?

The client will have gas and electricity bills issued in his name and recharge each tenant one third or one quarter of the bill. Presumably my client should claim input tax and...