Should I rent out or sell my UK home?

Your UK home is often the biggest decision before you go. Letting, selling and leaving it empty each bring different UK rules, and once you live in Canada, Canada taxes the rent and any later gain too.

Your three choices

Letting it out

• If you have a mortgage, get your lender’s consent to let, or switch to a buy-to-let mortgage. Letting without consent can breach your mortgage
• Tell your insurer: a standard home policy usually doesn’t cover a let property
• In England you must protect the tenant’s deposit in a government-approved scheme, keep gas and electrics safe, provide an Energy Performance Certificate and check the tenant’s right to rent
• A letting agent can manage the home and the tax deductions while you are 5 to 8 hours behind in Canada

England’s Renters’ Rights Act changed private renting from 1 May 2026. “No fault” (section 21) evictions have ended and tenancies are now rolling. To sell or move back in, you can’t use those grounds in the first 12 months of a tenancy and must give 4 months’ notice. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own rules.

The Non-Resident Landlord Scheme

If you live abroad for more than 6 months a year, you count as a non-resident landlord. Your letting agent (or your tenant, if the rent is over £100 a week and there is no agent) must take basic-rate tax off the rent and pay it to HMRC each quarter.

• You can apply to HMRC to get the rent with no tax taken off. You still declare it on a UK Self Assessment return
• The agent or tenant sends HMRC a yearly return and gives you a certificate (NRL6) showing tax taken off
• Keep records of rent and expenses: you need them for both countries

Selling from Canada: the UK side

If you sell after you have become non-UK resident, you must report the sale to HMRC within 60 days of completion, using an online Capital Gains Tax on UK property account. You must do this even if there is no tax to pay or you made a loss. Private Residence Relief may cover the years it was your main home, and non-residents are usually taxed only on the gain since April 2015.

Canadian tax on UK rent

Once you are Canadian tax resident you declare your worldwide income, including UK rent. You report it in Canadian dollars, after allowable expenses, on your Canadian return. The UK can also tax the rent because the home is in the UK. Under the UK–Canada tax treaty, Canada then gives you a foreign tax credit for the UK tax you paid on the same income, so you don’t pay twice. Keep your NRL6 certificates and UK returns as proof.

A let UK home counts towards the C$100,000 limit for Form T1135, the foreign property return. See Do I still pay UK tax?

Canadian tax when you sell later

• When you become resident, Canada treats you as having bought your UK home at its market value on that day. Only growth after you arrive is taxed in Canada
• Get a written valuation from a UK estate agent or surveyor around your arrival date and keep it
• Canada’s principal residence exemption can cover a home outside Canada, but only for years you lived in it as your main home. A let home usually doesn’t qualify for those years
• Exchange rates matter: Canada works out the gain in Canadian dollars, so a stronger or weaker pound changes the taxable gain

The rules interact in complex ways. Speak to a cross-border accountant before you sell.

Council tax and empty homes

A tenant who lives in the home usually pays the council tax. If you leave it empty or keep it as a second home in England, you usually still pay, and councils can add premiums: up to double for second homes and for homes empty a year or more, and up to 4 times for homes empty 10 years or more.