Allowable expenses help needed

[mole]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if repainting the exterior of a property is an allowable expense?

[subjecttocontract]

Yes it is.

[jeffrey]

But only if there is no other person responsible? For instance, if it's a flat and L is responsible for external parts' decor, could T deduct his/her own costs of voluntarily decoration the external parts not within the demised premises as defined?

[Telometer]

It is provided the property has not been recently acquired.

Re Jeffrey's point, it is allowable provided the expense is laid out wholly & exclusively for the purposes of the lettings business. So, if X owns both flats in a block, and lives in one of them but rents the other out, his company owning F, then his lettings business can only claim for the half of the costs attributable to the lettings business. (Clearly theoretically F would do the works and recharge them.)

But if X owns only one flat and cannot get F to do the works and so pays for the entirety to be painted, then that expense would be W&E for the purposes of his lettings business. As would painting the house next door in order to make the street look nicer and the properties more rentable. But not if he owned the house next door, or otherwise obtained some benefit for this activity.

(In my last house I bought the neighbours - who were HA tenants - a new front door and painted their house front as it added lots to the value of my house...)

[mole]

Thanks very much. :)

[Mrs Jones]

I have just "tarted up" the porch, painted the front door, decorated and carpeted the communal hall and stairs of the building where I am trying to sell my flat. Sometimes you have to do these things:(. My fellow flat-owners have chipped in but I can't think of any way of getting anything out of the tax man!

[subjecttocontract]

If the terms of your lease made the leaseholders responsible for decoration & flooring of the common parts ......as it does with some of my leasehold property.....then the cost of redecoration etc would be an allowable expense.

[Telometer]

but I can't think of any way of getting anything out of the tax man

Rental investment? Flipped property or your own home?

[Tipper]

Not an MP then!