Handy Tenants: Love 'Em or Hate 'Em?

Question

I have a new tenant that works for a construction company.  He seems pretty laid back and easy going.  Has mentioned a few times about him taking care of this and that.  For example, he volunteered to hang a spice rack in the kitchen pantry that I have not had time yet to install.

Is this a good idea or bad idea?  On one hand, I like that a tenant is self-sufficient and doesn't need me to come change a light bulb.  On the other hand, I don't want to set a precedent that he can start making general repairs at his own discretion.  Thoughts on this?

Kelly O'Quinn · Answer

I had a similar experience to @Christian Bors with a contractor/handy tenant. This tenant was a licensed contractor who decided to do a bunch of work to the interior of his unit prior to us taking over management. Turns out he incorrectly installed his granite counter top, causing it to crack in various places and leak from the sink and dishwasher, damaging the majority of the cabinets to the point they had to be replaced. He installed his own laminate wood flooring very poorly - there were missing pieces and large gaps. He ran an ad hoc gas line made of PVC pipe from his forced air heater along the kitchen wall to hook up a gas range when the kitchen was only set up for an electric range. He also jimmied his way into the water and gas lines for his unit (it was a condo in an HOA with community laundry, no units have indoor laundry hook-ups) to rig laundry hook-ups in his closet, then cut holes in his closet shelf and ceiling to vent the dryer into the attic without proper ducting. Then, when he put in a maintenance request and we sent our guy out there, he'd hover over him the whole time telling him how to do the job. There's more, but I won't go on. When he was evicted, he stole all the ceiling fans, the doorbell (not the wiring or box, JUST the button), all window coverings, and the glass shower door. All in all, it cost nearly $20k to turnover his 2 bed, 1 bath, 750 sq ft unit due to the extensive damage his "handyness" (or lack thereof) caused. It may just be a spice rack now, but if your tenant's desire to do his own handyman work snowballs, you could find yourself in a huge, expensive mess. Tread carefully.

Christian Bors · Answer

@Tony Castronovo Installing spice racks, caulking the tub, replacing a light bulb etc....are all items I am fine having a handy tenant do the repairs.  However, we had a "contractor/handy tenant" that caused some problems.  Such as the tenant complained the heating bill spiked up.  It turns out, the handy tenant replaced the thermostat incorrectly w/o our knowledge.  After this occurrence, we changed our policy.  Tenants are no longer allowed to make repairs, unless they have prior written approval.  The handy tenant wanted to replace the well pump, the front door, and many other items in the house that were perfectly fine.  He wanted to do the work and have us deduct his labor from the rent.  For example, he replaced the shed roof without discussing with us.  From another job he had left over shingles.  After telling me what he had done, he wanted 1 months rent for free. We declined and reiterated our policies.  FYI, he installed the shingles completely wrong!  This tenant is no longer with us.

Handy tenants can be great.  Contractor tenants can be a nightmare.  I prefer to have clueless tenants then contractor tenants.  It sounds good on paper, but reality is a different story.

Kimberly H. · Answer

We had a handy tenant who removed bushes and trees deciding they were dead. They were not. They moved in in a cold March and nothing had bloomed yet. Also buried the sump line at to high of a depth and to small of of a diameter pipe that he fried our brand new sump pump.

Kelly O'Quinn · Answer

Good on ya, @Tony Castronovo. Some tenants are difficult to train, but it's worth the effort now to save you from a worse situation down the road. @Christian Bors hmmm...starting to think we rented to the same guy! ;-p

Tony Castronovo · Answer

Wow!  Thanks for sharing your experiences guys.  That was my intuition...that this could lead to issues down the road.  Since he is a new tenant I will start setting a precedent and suggest I handle all the maintenance.  It's spelled out in the lease agreement, but I will discourage him from "helping me out".

Christian Bors · Answer

@Kelly O'Quinn  Wow, what an experience LOL....Gas lines w/ PVC.....

I can relate to the tenant hovering over our maintenance guy.  He called my plumber an idiot/moron while he fixed the issue.  My plumber refused to service that property unless he was gone in the future...He's gone for good.

Tony Castronovo · Answer

Thanks for your comment Account Closed.  I was at the property yesterday and the tenant suggested again that he didn't mind making a minor repair.  I kindly told him that I should do it and while I appreciate his willingness to help that it would be best if we left the repairs to me.  Not a problem and all is cool.

Account Closed · Answer

It's a hit or miss type of topic here! On one side, you may save yourself a few headaches and some money on nice upgrades, but on the other side, you may be enabling your tenant to use those things against you in the future regarding rent. Or even worse, problems with the city.

In my experience, I manage two commercial auto malls and deal with a lot of handy tenants as they've usually worked with cars their entire lives and really know how to fix and operate almost anything in the garages. I am pretty lenient when it comes to repairs and maintenance as long is it is up to city code and in writing. Make sure to include that it is a voluntary action so they can't use that against you when trying to collect rent.

Tony Castronovo · Answer

Sounds like everyone has a war story on this topic.  I think it's unanimous. Ha ha.

Handy Tenants: Love 'Em or Hate 'Em?

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