Refurbishment – claimable allowance or capital outlay?

Refurbishment – claimable allowance or capital outlay?

12:07 PM, 28th April 2014, About 10 years ago 23

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Hi,

I wonder whether anyone can help me on this please?

I recently bought 2 houses both of which were in run down old fashioned condition as follows:

Property 1 had been owned by 2 elderly brothers. Overall dirty, old fashioned decor. Filthy ‘doggy smelling’ carpets. Dated kitchen and bathroom and in my opinion would not have rented out to anyone without a revamp which I have done and now looks great – cost around the £5000 mark.

Property 2 had been rented out for the last 25 years with little done to it in that time beyond decorating. Decor fine (if you like artex!?). Old fashioned kitchen and bathroom and archaic gas fires x2 one of which had a back boiler for hot water and central heating.
Here I replaced one gas fire with a good looking modern electric fire and the other was removed and a new gas combi boiler installed along with modernisation of heating system with system flush, Magnaclean, trvs in each room etc etc. Plus updated fuse box and electrics (not full rewire). Old lino replaced with ceramic floor tiles. Modern kitchen units and bathroom suite installed in place of the old ones.

My question is this:

My accountant told me that because the revamps were done before any tenants moved in, the outlays are capital costs and not allowable costs against income, but I would argue that without the refurbishments first the properties would not have been in a rentable condition – all outlay went on bringing the properties up to modern standards, like for like and nothing put in that wasn’t there before, ie no extensions, loft conversions or anything like that.

I’m sure that this has been encountered by lots of landlords before and I would be grateful if someone could help please?

Thanks!

Annerefurbishment


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Comments

DC

16:17 PM, 28th April 2014, About 10 years ago

If these are your first and only rental properties then the only correct answers are from Mick Roberts and Joe Bloggs. You cannot offset against income tax any capital expenditure spent prior to receiving any initial income on your rental business.

A rental business begins on the first receipt of income i.e. rent.

HMRC state that the cost of refurbishing or repairing a property bought in a derelict or run-down state is a capital expense.

So in the circumstances provided by Anne, assuming no rent has ever been received prior to completion of all work on both of her purchases, the work she has carried out is not an allowable revenue expense and her accountant's advice is completely correct.

You would only be able to offset the cost of all this particular work against capital gains tax at the time of sale of these properties.

Anne Nixon

19:18 PM, 28th April 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Ian Ringrose" at "28/04/2014 - 15:55":

Property 1 - yes I got a BTL mortgage and interestingly the valuer who came said that lender's criteria had tightened up and that the property was to quote him 'borderline' with regard to condition but the mortgage went through.

Property 2, - as time was tight I paid cash so the house will be good when valued for a mortgage.

Thanks Ian

Anne Nixon

19:24 PM, 28th April 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "DC " at "28/04/2014 - 16:17":

Hi DC

Thanks for your input - I have other rental properties dating back to 2008, do you think that would make a difference?

Anne

Jeremy Smith

23:28 PM, 28th April 2014, About 10 years ago

Dear Ann,

Surely someone could have rented either one from you for a short time, just to get your cash flow going from each property, then moved out again before you started your renovations ?
- If you see where that is going ?

- my last property abroad was rented out for a few months to someone I befriended down the local bar, until I had time to go over and decorate it.
In Germany, the government keep a record of people's previous address, present address and their next address, so fraud and non-payment of rent is less common, as far as I know, since they can easily be traced for debts.

DC

10:03 AM, 29th April 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Anne Nixon" at "28/04/2014 - 19:24":

The fact that you have now confirmed that you are already running a rental business will make a big difference.

After your first property was let in 2008, any later expenditure leading up to the letting of the second and later properties is part of the rental business and can be deducted - provided it is incurred wholly and exclusively for the purpose of the business and is an allowable revenue expense.

So, if it is definitely repairs to damaged and unusable items and not just a refurb, I would go along with your earlier suggestion;

“..a tenant could not be expected to live with smelly old carpets or dirty wallpaper but dated kitchen units and bathroom suite could have been lived with. Old gas fires, boilers and fuse boxes would present a health hazard (and would definitely not be energy efficient) but old lino might have been livable with..”

Romain Garcin

10:13 AM, 29th April 2014, About 10 years ago

Even in case of the first property, expenses incurred before the first let can be claimed, as per previous posts.

Michael Barnes

14:38 PM, 29th April 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Romain " at "29/04/2014 - 10:13":

I agree.

Anne Nixon

15:03 PM, 29th April 2014, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Jeremy Smith" at "28/04/2014 - 23:28":

I guess I didn't know what I didn't know - a bit like playing a board game when I hadn't learned the rules! I made assumptions that turned out to be wrong and I have learned by my mistakes (hopefully this might help others in the same situation!?!)

Anne Nixon

15:07 PM, 29th April 2014, About 10 years ago

Many thanks again to those who responded to my query - what a great community this is!!

Ben Wilson

12:24 PM, 1st May 2014, About 10 years ago

I agree with what MdeB said about allowable items now that the renewals allowance is gone, but I wonder about vinyl and also laminate flooring, seems to me that these should be allowable expenses for an existing property because they manifestly are not normally removable from a property upon sale. They would be allowable in a newly purchased property only if what was there already did not make the property unlettable and they don't represent an improvement.

Also, as I read it, although the cost of carpet and moveable white goods is not deductible even for an existing property, the cost of fitting carpet, or delivering white goods, should be - see ICTA 2005 s308(1)(b).

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