Major Repairs while having Good Tenants

[Jennifer Sleider]

I have an owner occupied duplex in the Milwaukee area. I have owned the unit for 6 months and the rented out portion is in need of some serious repairs, that cannot be done with tenants in the unit. I inherited tenants that have been there over 6 years and are paying way under market value for the area.  They are also on a month to month contract. 

I would like to ask the tenants to vacate the unit for the month of may and offer them first dibs at the unit once the work is finished and let them know that there will be a large rent increase. If they did decide to stay, we were kicking around the idea of letting them keep their belongings there, just not being allowed to reside in the unit. Does anyone have any experience or advice on doing something like this? 

[Thomas S.]

Follow normal procedure, give notice, have them vacate and remove all their belongings so that you are not liable for them and suggest they can re-rent when the work is completed. Trying to work with them will be very complicated if you run into problems with the renovation work.

If they re-rent fine but you would be farther ahead to find new tenant that are prepared to pay market rent from the get go. It is a waste of your time to try and accommodate existing tenants and will probably not work out. If it does fine but don't put much effort into accommodating them as they will likely not follow through. You would be doing them a bigger favour to simply have them move on to a new permanent location.

With proper screening good tenants are a dime a dozen, find a new one.