Tenant Doing Repairs on Rental Property

[Juan Castro]

Hey All!

I am hoping I can get some feedback on this - I recently signed a new lease with two tenants that live in the lower unit of my duplex. One of them brought up that some of the caulking in their bathtub is cracked and could start having mold at some point. He showed me and I agree, it does need to be replaced. He offered to do the work since he does stuff like this at his job, and I said I would get a quote elsewhere and could take it out of the next month's rent to pay him.

My questions are: Do any of you have your tenants do repairs in the rental they live in, and if so do you just take it out of the month's rent? Or do you stick with hiring outside to avoid any drama in case the job is done poorly?

I would usually tackle this type of minor job myself, I have already done so with a few other minor things over the past couple years I have owned the place. Give me a solid YouTube video and other instructions online and I can fix some basic things, I try to learn as much as I can to be a good Landlord/Homeowner. BUT with him being new and potentially having the skill set to do other repairs in the future, I feel like this may be a good way to see his work ethic and talent to get jobs done in a professional manner, if that makes sense. If everything goes smoothly, then I may feel it easier to put trust in him on larger projects on the property, if they were to come up.

Let me know, thanks everyone!

-Juan C.