Allowable expenses for landlords
Landlords can deduct costs incurred wholly and exclusively for the rental business: repairs, letting agent fees, insurance, service charges, professional fees, travel to the property and replacement of domestic items. Mortgage interest is not an expense. It attracts a 20% tax credit instead. Improvements are never deductible against rental income.
What you can claim
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Repairs and maintenance | Damp treatment, boiler repair, repainting, replacing broken fittings like for like |
| Letting and management | Agent commission, tenant find fees, inventory and referencing |
| Insurance | Buildings, contents, landlord liability, rent guarantee |
| Service charges and ground rent | On leasehold property you own |
| Council tax and utilities | Where you pay them, including void periods |
| Professional fees | Accountancy, legal fees on short leases, arbitration |
| Travel | 45p per mile to the property for genuine business purposes |
| Replacement of domestic items | Beds, sofas, white goods, carpets, curtains, like for like |
| Use of home | A reasonable proportion if you run the portfolio from home |
What you cannot claim
Mortgage capital repayments. Only the interest element ever mattered, and since Section 24 even that is a credit rather than a deduction.
Improvements. An extension, a loft conversion, or a kitchen upgraded well beyond what was there before. These go against your capital gain when you sell instead.
Your own time. There is no deduction for the hours you spend managing the property.
Costs of buying or selling. Legal fees, survey fees and Stamp Duty on acquisition are capital, not revenue.
Personal expenditure, and the cost of travelling to look at properties you did not buy.
Repairs versus improvements, where the money is
This is the line that matters most, because a repair reduces your tax this year while an improvement sits on the shelf until you sell.
Replacing a tired kitchen with a similar quality kitchen is a repair. Replacing it with a substantially better one is an improvement, though HMRC accepts that modern equivalents of old materials are still repairs, so double glazing replacing single glazing is generally fine.
The practical test: does the work restore the property to its previous condition, or does it make the property better than it was?
Keep the invoices detailed. "Kitchen works, £8,000" is hard to defend. An itemised invoice showing like-for-like replacement is not.
Replacement of domestic items relief
Since the wear and tear allowance was abolished, you claim the actual cost of replacing furnishings, appliances and kitchenware provided for the tenant's use.
It is a replacement relief, not an initial cost relief. The first sofa you put in is not deductible, the one that replaces it is. And you can only claim the cost of a broadly equivalent item, less anything you got for the old one.
This guide is general information, current at 10 November 2026. Tax rules change and depend on your circumstances. Please take advice before acting on it.