Thank you very much for the advices!
I currently split the utilities between me and my roommate since there are only two of us living in the house. I always only have one tenant at a time. Since the room is in use for rental purposes all year (but not always occupied), can I still use half of the annual utility expense for deduction, or only 1/5 of the annual utility expense since only one room out of 5 rooms is available for rent, or should I only deduct half of the utility expense on the days when I actually have a roommate?
Also just to confirm if I understand correctly, even though the roommate has access and can use the other two rooms in my house besides her own bedroom, the two rooms can't be considered as public area? In the other word, I could only apply ratio of 1/5 instead of 1/3 (one room out of three rooms that are for exclusive use) for deducting expenses?
