Claiming depreciation on idle property

[Mark Forest]

Hello all. This has been a very busy year and I let one of my rental houses sit without tenants for all of 2014 till now. We have been working on it to get it rent ready, but it is not quite done. It was rented for half of 2013 but he tenants did damage I had to fix, and while we were at it we made improvements. Yes, I know that is way TOO slow.

Will I still be able to claim depreciation on it for 2014? Will I be penalized in any way for this?  Thank you in advance for all  information on this important issue.  

[Brandon Hall]

@Jassem A.  What you cited only applies when first placing a property into service. It is not applicable to the case mentioned by the OP since he has already placed the property into service.

@Mark Forest You should continue to depreciate the property through the maintenance period. Even though it is not rented, it is being held as an investment with the purpose of making it rent ready. Technically, since you had already placed the property into service the year before, you are just making capital improvements. Once you complete your capital improvements, you add them to the cost basis and depreciate them as well.

Per the IRS:

Idle Property

Continue to claim a deduction for depreciation on property used in your business or for the production of income even if it is temporarily idle (not in use). For example, if you stop using a machine because there is a temporary lack of a market for a product made with that machine, continue to deduct depreciation on the machine.