Rental Tax question for non-owner of the property?

Here's my question, I lived in a house with my stepmother after my father passed away for two years. she passed away and her daughter was the new owner of the house. For the past three years while in college no one lived in the house. I graduated and asked her if I could repair the house and rent it to someone she agreed to allow me to do so since she wasn't going to do anything with it. I am going to claim the rental income from the house on my taxes can I also claim the repairs even though I don't own the house?

You repaired your relative's house and rented it, and your relative is letting you keep the rent.

One way to do this is,

1. The rent is the owner's income, the repairs are the owner's expense. Give her a statement of rent received and repair you have made and be done with it. How she accounts for it is her issue, not yours.
2. The repair is the service you provided in exchange for the rent payments being assigned to you.

So, I would file taxes showing that you received payment for repairs made to the house you did not own. Do this on a Schedule C, with the business activity "House Repair." Show all the rent monies you received as payment for services rendered. Show the repairs you paid for as contract labor, show materials and supplies on their separate line. You cannot deduct your own time.

You should get a written agreement from her stipulating that you will have control of the asset for rental purposes. Have you considered purchasing the property from her? Once you get the agreement, you can claim the repairs and the rental income as a sub-let or as a property manager

It's not your property. It's hers.

She has to declare the rental income, expenses and payments she made to you. You, in turn, declare that income as self-employment expense.

if you receive the income and pay the expense, you can include all on your tax return. BUT
why would you want to?
you cannot depreciate what you do not own and that is the big deduction