Letting a tenant do their own repairs: good or bad idea?

Question

I'm in the process of renovating a rental property. Everything is cosmetic except for the kitchen. We have torn everything out so it's down to the studs and subflooring.

A potential tenant contacted me and said he was willing to live in the house as-is and do a lot of the kitchen work himself and then use his own appliances for the kitchen.

I'm thinking this could either go very well or very terribly.

What do you all think??

Rich N. · Answer

No, never do it.

1. if anything is wrong its on you.2. they will always believe you owe them for everything.3. they will pay late or not at all and state "I did all this work"4. if they get hurt, they will sue.5. they will never stop doing stuff for you....for rent reduction.

Thomas S. · Answer

Never allow any tenant to do any work on your property. No repairs, painting, hanging shelves, nothing should ever be done by a tenant except hang a picture and only then with your preapproval.

Alex W. · Answer

I agree with @Rich Ng

It might sound like a good idea, but I think you should just keep it separate.

Linda S. · Answer

Unless he is a licensed plumber, electrician and has experience with cabinets, I feel like this is a disaster waiting to happen.     If it were me, I'd say no, but you could offer him a discount on rent while you are renovating?

Jeff B. · Answer

additionally, if there's a squabble, the tenant can claim UNPAID LABOR and it's your tail in the fire with the state.

Deanna McCormick · Answer

No.. WAY...

If he's injured you get sued, If he does crappy work your screwed. If he files a lien against your property for ya not liking the fact your payment agreement, it wasn't good enough then your screwed again.

Unless he's a licensed contractor NO !

Get it done and get it rented.. do it your way or hire it out..

Account Closed · Answer

@Virginia Reasor  @Rich Ng nailed it. In my first couple of properties I let one of my GC's paint subs move into a rental i bought that needed some drywall/paint work, while i had a bunch of other projects going on at the time. Thought it was a win-win.. but almost verbatim as Rich mentioned, i got the "but i did all this work for you" line every. single. month. from then on until i finally booted him out.

William Brown · Answer

Thomas S. Great insight. I'll keep that in mind.

Letting a tenant do their own repairs: good or bad idea?

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