my accountant mentioned to me that the vat rules had changed for vat registered landlords. According to him, you cannot deregister prior to selling the properties.
very hard to get a straight answer on all this. have a call into the revenue, but i knew more about it then the guy i asked. he promised to check it out though...
If you were registered and claimed repayment of VAT, the least you used have to do was when you deregistered was not to leave the Revenue with a VAT shortfall.
There has been some changes and what your accountant says needs to be checked out.