New Member - Depreciation vs. Expense Question

[Sundeep Bhatia]

Hi All,

I am a new member who happened to stumble upon this site recently. I've learned quite a bit so far as I got into the rental game after I moved and didn't find it financially sound to sell my first place and renting gave me some great opportunities.

I had a question about a rental property I have owned for a few years. It is a condo with an association and 5 residential units and a single commercial unit which spans the length of the 5 residential units. In 2017 we had a special assessment to have our decks repaired due to faulty construction and leakage issues with the commercial unit which spans all 5 residential units. The repairs began in November and are due to complete in April of 2018 ( a few weeks from now). I am in the process of finishing up my taxes and was wondering if the cost of these repairs can be taken as an expense and not an improvement (i.e. not depreciation). If not, how should the depreciation be handled since part of the cost of the repairs was paid in 2017 and part will be paid in 2018 and the work wont be completed till 2018.

Hopefully I have posted this in the right forum. This is my first post and I couldn't find another appropriate forum to post this to.