Unit Needs Renovation -- kick out the tenant or let them stay??

[Megan Greathouse]

Hello, fellow landlords! I bought a duplex in October that needed work. I inherited a tenant on one side and the other was vacant, so I went to work fixing and updating the vacant unit. It's now complete, and I was able to put tenants in at nearly double what my inherited tenants are paying!

Now I have the funds and the time to renovate the other unit... but how should I handle the tenants? They are on a month-to-month lease, so I could easily just give them notice to leave. But I could also do the "nice" thing and phase the renovations in such a way that gets the unit slowly up to date while also incrementally raising their rent. However, I know doing the updates with tenants in the unit could present liability issues. And I am not sure if they'd be able to go from the $750 they currently pay to the $1400 I know I can get once the unit is updated. (Plus, I already have one family who said they're interested in putting a deposit on this unit now and moving in after the updates are complete... they saw the other unit when it was listed for rent but weren't ready to move just yet.)

The inherited tenants have lived there quite a while and have kids, so I'm tempted to try the "nice" route... but I also know things will go smoother if the unit is empty. So I'm very torn. I'd appreciate your thoughts, BP friends!