broken furnance: depreciation vs repairs

[John K.]

So I received a call in the middle of the night a few months back, and the furnace was out and it was -20 outside so a true panic call. I had to replace the draft motor in it, for about $1200 (middle of the night on a weekend).

My accountant said that since this extended the life of the property, it could potentially have to be a depreciable asset - I on the other hand thought this was more of a repair since it was fixing a broken furnace. Has anyone else had this issue?

What other odd things that you had to depreciate when you thought it was a repair?

[Steve Babiak]

@Kevin Brown - you are correct in that you don't have to take depreciation, but at a future sale of the rental property the IRS will treat your sale as if you did whether you did take depreciation or not. So might as well take it if you can.