Things that show your rental property is available
Your property is available for rent where you either have:
- a tenant renting the property
- made genuine effort to
- advertise the property in ways that give it broad exposure to possible tenants
- have conditions that are not so restrictive that tenants are likely to rent the property.
Where you rent out property or it is genuinely available for rent, you can claim for expenses you incur. There are also some rental expenses you can't claim.
Things that show your rental property is not available
Things that may show a property isn't genuinely available for rent include:
- it's advertised in ways that limit its exposure to potential tenants – for example, the property is only advertised
- at your workplace
- by word of mouth
- on restricted social media groups
- outside annual holiday periods when the likelihood of it being rented out is very low
- the location, condition of the property, or accessibility of the property mean that it's unlikely tenants will seek to rent it
- you place unreasonable or stringent conditions on renting out the property that restrict the likelihood of the property being rented out, such as
- setting the rent above the rate of comparable properties in the area
- placing a combination of restrictions on renting out the property – for example, requiring prospective tenants to provide references for short holiday stays and having conditions like 'no children' and 'no pets'
- you refuse to rent out the property to interested people without adequate reasons.
These things generally show you:
- don't have a genuine intention to earn rental income from the property
- may have other purposes, such as using it or reserving it for personal use.
Check our examples of factors that generally indicate the property is not genuinely available to rent.