Rental expenses after rental ceased in a retiremnt flat

Can you advise please. A client and her brother inherited a retirement flat from their mother. It was rented out for a few years and then they decided to sell it after a tenant left. The final rent from the tenant was in July 2022 . they continued to pay services charges (mandatory for a retirement flat) and council tax thus creating a property tax loss. They failed to sell the flat so had another tenant in the current tax year.who actually lasted 1 week and was taken into care. The flat is now being relet again if they can find another tenant. The potential sale of the flat has been put on the back foot but would sell it if another purchaser came along. My question is – can they claim the expenses in the rental computation between the final let in July 22 until the new 1-week tenant and possible future new tenants. The business originally ceased (flat not avaialble for rental) and is now continuing (restarted). We can’t find anything helpful for this particular scenario. To recap – business ceases/ flat put on market/ could not sell it/ flat then put back on market for tenants/ how to deal with rental expenses after July 22 tenant left this is the only flat . thanks for any help and advice.

Hi,
The 'wholly and exclusively test' under PIM 2010,  generally speaking  the ‘wholly and exclusively’ rule says that expenses cannot be deducted unless they are incurred wholly and exclusively for business purposes.
In your case we would suggest that your property whilst not having a sitting tenant would not intend to trade therefore not receive an income.
Please see guidance in HMRCs business income manual at:
PIM2010 - Deductions: general rules: applying the wholly & exclusively rule
Wewould suggest that only the proportion of the costs would be allowable whilst you were physically renting the property out under a tenancy agreement. The 'empty' property expenses would not be allowable as an expense.
Thank you.