Legal question about rights to building an ADU in tenant backyard

[Jay Dimacali]

Legal question about building an ADU:

Question for everybody out there. I've got a tenant who is renting a house that I own in the City of LA. The tenants were told before moving in that there was an ADU going to be built which would take the majority of their backyard and they signed a rental agreement knowing that they would not have the garage. I screwed up that I didn't put in writing that the majority of the back yard was going to be taken for the building of the ADU but now that the plans and permits have been approved the tenants are balking and saying they don't want the ADU built because they're going to lose the majority of their yard. From contractor and Apartment associations from who I got the rental agreement I'm told that it's my legal right to start building. I totally agree with them but now my concern is that the tenants will go with the whole 'I got coronavirus issues, I can't pay the rent, and now I'm going to stay in your place for free.' They already used the 'I have coronavirus related issues to pay rent late' by the way. I kind of figured that's one of the worst-case scenarios. Does anyone have any experience dealing with this kind of issue or do you know any law firm that would be able to deal with this kind of situation? Thanks in advance!