Costs between end of rental and selling

[Julie1111]

I put the house on the market one day after the tenant left. It's been empty for two months and I've spent a few thousand on skips for tenants rubbish, cleaning, gardening, small repairs plus council tax,water, electric, gas plus my time and travel. Can I claim any of that against my income tax as I feel it was to do with the renting business and I needed to get it fairly tidy to be able to sell.
A new boiler 7 years ago...can I claim against CGT when it was so long ago?

[bd6759]

Any costs incurred for the purposes of the business can be claimed against the rental income. If there is no rental income, then unfortunately there is nothing to set the expenses against.

The new boiler should have been claimed against the rental income. It cannot be claimed against CGT.

[Julie1111]

Hi . I had rental income until February 2018 and March 2018 is when I spent the most, just doing a self assessment for that year but I get conflicting advice and I was told anything after the house goes for sale can't be claimed. The first year I had an accountant do the books and she said the boiler can't be claimed against expenses, repairs etc. as it was a capital expense. Oh dear. Maybe I've lost out there.

[bd6759]

It is possible to incur expenses after a business has ceased.

You repaired your hot water/central heating by replacing the boiler. As one eminent Judge said, every repair is a replacement: if a roof is leaking you fix it by replacing the tiles. It is a question of fact and degree to determine how much replacing you need to do for the repair expense to become a capital expense. Normally would only be considered capital if you you modified or enhanced what was already there.

Also, it does not naturally follow that capital expenditure is deductble from the CGT computation.