Use as a Home

A fair rental price

A fair rental price for your property generally is an amount that a person who is not related to you is willing to pay. The rent you charge is not a fair rental price if it is substantially less than the rents charged for other properties that are similar to your property.

Repairs and maintenance

Do not count as a day of personal use of the dwelling unit any day that you spend there working substantially full time repairing and maintaining your property.

Use of main home

If the dwelling unit is your main home, there is a special rule to determine if it was used as a home. In this circumstance, do not count as days of personal use the days you used the property before or after renting it or offering it for rent if:

• you rented or tried to rent the property for 12 or more consecutive months, or

• you rented or tried to rent the property for a period of less than 12 consecutive months and the period ended because you sold or exchanged the property.

This special rule for your main home applies only to determining if the dwelling is considered a home for purposes of limiting your deductions. It does not apply when dividing expenses between rental and personal use.