UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi there

There is work being done on the house before it is ready for tenants to move in, I was wondering in that case whether the following would be allowable expenses for tax purposes for the financial year rather then as longer term capital expenses:

1 - unoccupied home insurance (which eventually will change to landlords but for now it's not)
2 - insulation costs (not clear to me if this is considered capital or not, I need to do this to improve the EPC from its current terribly low rating)
3 - cost of Mileage to visit the house regularly (daily, or every other day), to see the progress of the renovation works that are going on
4 - food expenses when friends / family are doing work but not getting paid for it in money (such as wallpapering, painting etc) - I can't prove the food is for that address though because it's ordered to my home address as ppl rather come here and eat
5 - building survey done when buying the house (assume this is capital but want to double check)

Thank you

1 - Allowable against income, the cost is treated as having been incurred on the first day of the first tenancy - which is when the business commences.
2 - You can't claim insulation as an allowable cost unless it's replacing something that's already there. Most people treat it as a Capital item although I'm not 100% sure that's allowed either.
3 - As per 1.
4 - Nope, fails the solely and exclusively test.
5 - Capital.