Readers’ forum: Will new furnishings for marital home qualify for relief?

My client is getting married and moving into his new wife’s house. He had decided to retain his existing house and rent it out (it won’t qualify under the furnished holiday lettings rules).

Some of the furnishings and appliances in the house are a bit old so he plans to purchase new replacement items – these will be broadly of the same type as the old ones rather than significant upgrades.

My question is whether the purchase of the new furnishings will qualify for domestic items relief? It seems odd that HMRC might consider that the old items were never used in a lettings business but I can’t see anything which explicitly says that this prohibits the relief.

Do any readers have experience of this issue? If it is a problem can it be solved by the tenant moving in for a few days before the items are...