I am brought my first home few years ago which was my only and main residence. Very recently, I did purchased a new home jointly with my wife. My wife and child moved to new property permanently.
I am still at the old property as my main residence and spending most of the time there renovating it. Effectively new home is my 2nd home and is only 2 miles away from the the old one.
I am exploring rent-a-room to rent one bedroom at old property, while I am doing the renovations there.
- Can I continue there as my main residence and use rent a room scheme and get tax free earnings of up to £7500?
- I understand that I can elect main home with in 2 years of new purchase. If I do elect old property as my main home, I believe I get exemption from Capital Gains...if/when I decided to after 3 years? Is this correct?
- Does the electing of main home makes any difference to rent a room?
- I also want to move my correspondence address for banks/other sensitive stuff to new home, as I feel my private data may not be very safe in rent-a-room type shared accommodation. Can I still use rent-a-room and claim old house as main residence even with bank address transferred?
thanks in advance