You're not clear on what you are calling a loss. Unpaid or uncollected rent is not a loss by any stretch. You can not deduct that which you never received and paid taxes on in the first place.
When it comes to residential rental property, it is *EXTREMELY* rare to ever show a taxable profit. It's more common for rental property to show a loss *ON PAPER* every single year at tax time. Those losses continue to increase with each passing year too.
So exactly what are you calling a loss?
If you were not renting because you were doing repairs on the property, I seriously doubt the work would be classified as a repair. Sounds more like a property improvement to me.
