Furnished holiday lettings

heathbl

I wonder if anyone knows about furnished holiday lettings for a friend of mine.
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Property was on long term let till May. (It was mortgaged)
They decided to make it into furnished holiday lettings.
Became available at end of September and they got 35 days let for the year.
During the period it was empty, refurbishment took place.
Question is:
it qualifies for furnished holiday lettings for the last part of the year, as, when apportioned out, it meets the qualifying number of days
ie 35 let days, 197 days available therefore half of the year.
As there was expenditure before the holiday lets began, would relief be available for that expenditure, on the basis of pre trading, or would that mean that by allowing the relief, the days acutally let as a proportion of the days available, would disqualify the conditions for holiday lets.
Hope that is clear.
Thanks in advance.

Mr_Taxtastic

You have to meet the conditions of FHL for a full year it is not adjusted for short periods.
In your case it will be a FHL if it is let for over 70 days and available for 140 days for the period beging from your first let which would be september 2008 to August 2009. Then in your second year the test moves to tax year periods.
Income would still be declared according to the tax year.

Pre letting expenditure will be counted as being inccurred on the day of the 1st let. Becareful they are claiming for revenue expenses and not capital though its a fine line some times.