CO Landlord - Can I use a SD to pay my spouse to repair damage to my units?

[Virginia Lacy]

Hi Everyone, 

    I am aware Colorado law prevents landlords from charging the tenant's security deposit for the time the landlord spends on repairs (though they can charge materials). My question is, can I pay my husband, who is not on the title,  as a property manager for his time cleaning and repairing a unit I own? 

   I'm not trying to squeeze every dime out of our tenants. Most of the time we (my husband and I) have no problem painting, mopping, scrubbing and dusting a bit between tenant transitions. However this last tenant left our unit in a very damaged and extremely filthy state that took considerable work to remedy (which was a surprise because they had been pretty responsible until this event). We currently live out of state, so we had to tack on extra days to our visit along with extra hotel expenses in order to make sure everything was fixed. It was really hard to schedule cleaners and contractors for repairs on such short notice, and, though we were able to get some of them, my husband ended up doing a great deal of work on the unit (and had to cancel a number of his plans in order to do so). My husband does most of the management of my properties and interfacing with our tenants, but he is not on the title and so isn't an owner. Can I pay him from the tenant's security deposit for the time and effort he put into repairing the unit? 

Thanks so much Bigger Pockets! 

-Virginia

[Greg M.]

If the renter disagrees and takes you to court, what is a judge going to think? It's a toss up. The judge could say that technically he is not an owner. Or the judge could say he is a beneficial owner (he gets benefits as an owner even if ownership is in another's name). 

If you want to do the work yourself, get 2-3 estimates from outside companies. Charge the tenant the lowest estimate.