For the past few years I have had ownership of my mum’s house and rented it back to her. This was set up some years ago. She has now moved out, into sheltered housing, and I have been gradually clearing 40 years worth of stuff. This is nearly complete, but it has taken 18 months..

For the moment, we plane to let the house out, and am getting set up with that. As I understand it, given there is > 1 year gap in lettings, I can’t claim much of the expenses in setting this up against the costs of letting (I’m thinking EPC, even the replacement of carpets and remedial maintenance).

I’ll check with the letting agent as well, who’ve been pretty god so far, but is there a common resource I can access to double check all these questions I have? I’m aware I can’t upgrade, but most of this is just getting the house in lettable condition again and addressing stuff that should have been done a while ago 🙂

You can’t claim expenses,or a percentage of,anything that may add value to the property such as pvc windows.Upon letting the property it becomes commercial so is subject to capital gains tax and this is where you can add the value of stuff like pvc windows,new kitchen ,etc.It might be worth getting a valuation on it now in case of a future sale.
I claim for stuff like pointing,painting,boiler work,and a bit for travel and phone costs.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/