Rental Property Investor · Clearwater, FL · Member since 2013 · 125 posts · 55 votes
Hello, We have a triplex in a lower-income neighborhood in the Tampa Bay area. We have a pretty good Tenant who is moving from one apartment unit to another. The previous Tenant left the place dirty, and several rooms need new paint. Our pretty good Tenant has offered to clean the place before she moves in and to paint it, too. However, she has requested a Rent Credit.
I have no problem letting her clean since that will save us money and allow her to get in there faster. However, I am not sure what to do about the painting, especially if she doesn't do it at all. (The floors are tile and terrazzo, so it is easy to clean up spilled paint.)
We haven't gotten an estimate on the painting from a painter yet. The Property Manager usually does light cleaning and repairs between tenants.
Recommendations or another way to think about this? My Property Manager isn't sure how to handle this, either, so I thought I would ask the community. Thanks!
We never allow the tenants to paint, ever. They normally do a very poor job that will have to be corrected later - drips on the floor, doors walls and molding, poor job of cutting in, bleed through on the walls. If you have terrazzo floors, then you probably have acoustic / popcorn ceilings. When these are painted large sections normally peel of and need to be repaired.
What if she fixes the refrigerator 3 months from now?
How much longer will it take for her to finish he cleaning and painting to her liking, while your losing rental income on the other unit by her essentially occupying 2 units?
Tell her (your attorney said if your afraid of being the bad guy) your unable to comply with her request, but you will let her know when the new unit is ready to move into. I would also give her x amount of days to move but let her know you will have to charge a prorated fee per day after that to move for occupying both units.
I've done a rent credit for the price it would have cost to me to have the property cleaned in a past rental due to immediate turn around. Not sure how I would handle the painting.
We never allow the tenants to paint, ever. They normally do a very poor job that will have to be corrected later - drips on the floor, doors walls and molding, poor job of cutting in, bleed through on the walls. If you have terrazzo floors, then you probably have acoustic / popcorn ceilings. When these are painted large sections normally peel of and need to be repaired.
You can say that twice. We never let tenants paint. For one, we use the same colors on all properties so it would have to be painted that color. Second, most tenants are lucky they can dress themselves in the morning, much less paint walls without destroying the floors, ceiling and trimwork. I've painted more walls, ceilings and trim work than I could ever count in my lifetime and *I* suck compared to professional painters, and most of my paint jobs could pass for lower-end professional jobs.
Everybody thinks they can paint because they can - you get a brush or a roller, a can of paint at Lowe's and away you go. Hardly anyone can prep properly, mask or dropcloth properly, cut in around trim and windows, get even coverage, etc.
So that's a long way of saying hell no. Pay for your own painting and make them pay normal rent. Which you should always do anyway because tenants should never get the idea that rent is negotiable, ever.
The only way I would ever consider this is if the tenant is a professional painter. I would pay them separately rather than giving a rent credit. Everyone thinks they can paint but there's a big difference between a professional paint job and a non-professional one (the latter usually actually damages the property instead of improving it).