My tenants want to upgrade my property at their cost, doing all their own work

[Jean Ridlon]

I have great tenants that pay their rent on time. They are retired, and want to stay in the property “forever” because they love it so much. (It has a phenomenal view.) A few years ago they lost their house to foreclosure, and now they want to settle in my rental ‘till they die.

They want to upgrade the property to their specifications. So far they have installed their own cabinets in the kitchen, carved up a built-in to add more counter space, and painted the bathroom cabinets. They added hanging lights in the kitchen, but have not replaced the broken lightbox plastic.

My problem is that some of the upgrades are not absolutely perfect; the side of the added counter top is bare naked showing the cheap manufactured wood; the backsplash they installed above the added counter space goes halfway through a doorway molding; and I haven’t yet seen the bathroom cabinets that they painted.

I think I need to stop them from doing any more work, because if they ever leave, I’ll have the expense of correcting the things they did a little haphazardly.

Rent does not cover anything but mortgage, interest & taxes. Under the scenario of 50% of rent covers expenses, I am about $200 short every month. They will pay for small repairs, but I get the big ones like a new roof, a new swamp cooler, a new water line to the house.

Does anybody have any suggestions? Am I being paranoid when they keep telling me how much they love the house and want to stay their forever (and I keep hearing, we want to do whatever to it because it is ours and screw you if you don’t like it).

Thanks for any input

[Bill Gulley]

You have a problem and could have more in an eviction..

Stop work. explain it is not in a workman-like manner, I'd probably say they need to pay to have it fixed as a repair if it isn't rentable.

The best rule is never allow a tenant to make improvements as they can establish an equitable interest in the property regardless of your agreement in residential leases. You have experienced the other issue, tenants are usually not craftsmen. :)