The Lemon Fool

I haven't looked further but https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tax/hmr ... ax-changes includes, under the Rent a room relief heading:

This rules out letting the whole house while on holiday, but taking short holidays during a period of long term letting to a lodger will not break the conditions of the relief.

"the taxpayer must be present in the property for all or part for the time for which the room is let out."

Since "part" is not defined there, then it might be sufficient that the owner occupier is present for 5 minutes, perhaps to hand over the keys or demonstrate how the oven works.

Or do they mean "substantially present" or "materially present"?

The Policy Paper https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... oom-relief includes

This ‘shared occupancy’ test will provide that the individual, or a member of their household, in receipt of income must have a ‘shared occupancy’, a physical presence for all or part of the period of the rental, with the individual whose occupation of the furnished accommodation is generating receipts.

The draft legislation https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... idence.pdf includes:

"the use to which the receipts relate is physical use of the furnished accommodation that overlaps in time (wholly or partly) with the use of the residence as sleeping accommodation by the individual or a member of the individual‘s household,”.