Let tenants paint cupoadrs and bathroom?

[Justin Case]

My month to month tenants just asked to paint the cupboards and bathroom at my expense. (taking out of rent)
Their year lease expired two months ago and they will not sign another because they want to stay month to month unless I lower the monthly rent $400 a month but will stay month to month at the current rent.. Does not make sense to me.

Would you let them paint the bathroom with mildew resistant paint and cupboards at my expense? I do not want them to paint since they could leave a month later. (should I just tell them that?)
There is no mildew unless the ceiling is cleaned every 6 months. The cleaning takes 5mins with tsp and water. Should I just tell them this?

Im in a hard spot since the market is hard to rent the place if they leave.

They also want me to pay for a fire extinguisher. Would you buy this for them?

They just changed their phone number to an area code across the county. This does not make sense to me..it is not work related. Can I ask them why they got an out of state number?

I appreciate your feedback. If the rental market was better I would tell them flat out NO painting.

Thanks!

[Michael Rossi]

The tenants are telling you (as plainly as tenants can) that they will soon be leaving. Do NOT let tenants work on your rentals. Do NOT pay tenants for doing anything (by taking it out of the rent). Are you taking taxes out of their pay? Do you have worker's comp for them? Are you willing to be sued if they get hurt doing the work? NEVER LET TENANTS WORK ON YOUR RENTALS!!!

I put fire extinguishers in ALL my rentals. They have saved the day a couple of times when the tenants started fires while attempting to cook!

Mike