Can I claim expenses incurred in repairing a property in preparation for letting it?

[Rob H]

I first rented out a house, which I had been living in, in May 2018. Prior to letting it there was maintenance and repair work which needed doing to bring it up to a reasonable standard. As long as these did not constitute'improvements' is it possible for me to now claim the expenses involved back against tax? The majority were completed in the previous tax year. If it is possible to claim, how would I do it given that the expenditure was in the previous tax year ie 2017/18. ( I did not complete a tax return for that year as my income was all taxed through PAYE).

[jpkeates]

If you were carrying out maintenance and repair work while living in the house, you would need to be able to show that the work was wholly and exclusively for the rental business, which would normally be difficult to do (unless you were doing things to make the property suitable as an HMO for example).
Otherwise, you're maintaining and repairing your own home, which fails the wholly and exclusively test.

If the work was done after you moved house, and the expenses are not capital in nature, they are declared as costs as if they had happened on the first day of the first tenancy (i.e. when the rental business began).