New queries, issue 4459

Abortive costs

Tax relief on costs incurred on a property purchase that does not proceed.

I have various clients who own a property or portfolio of properties that they let out. In this time of generally rising prices many clients have bought more properties for letting.

However several have gone through the process of attempting to buy a property that would be suitable for letting only for the purchase to fall through at the last minute.

This might be because they have been gazumped or that a survey revealed a problem that was either too costly to fix or may have meant that the mortgage application was turned down. In the meantime the client will have incurred costs on surveys legal work and arranging finance all of which will have been wasted.

Do readers think these abortive costs might be set against...