Can a Landlord Claim Travel Expenses?

Landlords often find themselves on the move, whether it's darting from one property to another, sourcing materials for a quick repair, or meeting potential tenants. Travelling here, there and everywhere is a natural part of managing a rental business. However when the mileage starts to add up, so do the costs. This raises an important question: can these travel expenses be claimed back to ease the financial burden?

In this article, we’ll get into the specifics of what travel expenses landlords can claim, the conditions that apply, and how to ensure you're making the most of allowable deductions while staying within the lines of UK tax laws.

The 'solely for business' rule and its impact on landlord travel expenses

Complying with the 'solely for business' rule is essential for landlords looking to claim back travel expenses. This means expenses must be incurred wholly and exclusively for the rental business in order to be deductible from your taxable income. Every mile you travel and penny you claim for must directly relate to managing or maintaining your properties.

For instance, driving to a property to conduct repairs or meet with tenants complies with this rule, making the trip's expenses claimable. However, complications can come up if a journey serves both personal and business purposes. A trip to a rental property that coincidentally includes a detour for personal errands fails the 'wholly and exclusively' test, muddying the waters on what can be claimed.

Likewise, if a landlord travels directly to the rental property to meet with tenants or conduct repairs, but on the way back decides to take a detour for a personal errand, only the outbound journey can be claimed for under the ‘solely for business’ rule. Understanding this difference is important to ensure you're making the most of allowable deductions without stepping over legal boundaries.

How hiring letting agents influences your travel expense claims

When you bring a letting agent on board to manage your rental property, your travel expenses are likely to decrease. Essentially, the agent normally does a lot of the legwork – from handling tenant issues to making sure the property is in good shape. This means a lot of the trips you might have made are no longer on your to-do list, which can affect what you can claim come tax time.

However, there are still times when you'll need to travel to your property. Maybe you're overseeing a big upgrade or you just want to check things out for your own peace of mind. These trips. as long as they are purely related to the rental property. can still count as allowable expenses.

As a landlord, you’ll need to assess each journey’s purpose and necessity to make sure that any travel expenses claimed are both defensible and within the law.

Claiming mileage costs

HMRC lets you claim 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles you travel for your rental business..

Landlord insurance from Towergate

Managing your travel expenses really can improve the profitability of your rental business. Alongside these tax considerations, protecting your investment with comprehensive landlord insurance from Towergate can safeguard your property against a host of unforeseen events, providing peace of mind and financial security.

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About the author

Alison Wild BCom (Hons), FMAAT, MATT, Taxation Technician is a highly respected industry professional who has been working with and advising SMEs in areas including tax, pensions, insurance and marketing for over 25 years. She is a Fellow member of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) and Association of Tax Technicians (ATT) and also has 20 years' experience as a residential landlord.

This is a marketing article by Towergate Insurance. Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems we recommend that professional advice be sought.

The information contained in this article is based on sources that we believe are reliable and should be understood as general information only. It is not intended to be taken as advice with respect to any specific or individual situation and cannot be relied upon as such.