UK Reclaiming VAT if no vatable income

[Swampydrill]

When reviewing my yearly accounts with my accountant he raised a point with me in regards to reclaiming VAT. I meant to ask a question and he has now gone on holiday so just looking for someone to confirm if possible. I was working in UK and everything had VAT applied, i also have some properties in my ltd company and claimed some VAT back from some expenses as i am out of the flat rate scheme. The issue now is that i am working overseas (South America) and not applying VAT to my invoice, during some of these quarters i have reclaimed some VAT from property renovating expenses, my accountant says i should not have done this as i had no vatable income during this quarter as overseas. My question is, how much vatable income do i need ?, if i worked a day for someone in the UK and charged VAT would this suffice ?, if so then this could be beneficial if recovering up to £1000 vat on some expenses?