Tradesman as tenant

I have an IP where I have been lucky enough to get someone that is a tradesman. [biggrin] He has approached me to say he could add value to my place (bathroom ensuite etc..)for reduced rent.

Has anyone done this trade off before? And did it work out in favour for both?

Thanks Jenny

Hi Jenny, If you have a property manager, they won’t be too happy at getting a reduced commission on a reduced rent.

I have had a similar situation before, whereby my tenant was a painter who worked at a paint selling store.

I allowed my Property manager to handle everything for me and it worked out well.

Here’s how it worked. PM inspected the property with the tenant and discussed where painting would occur. Tenant selected paint when PM agreed with the colours. Tenant then over a period (in his spare time) would paint areas of the house and notify PM when each area was completed. PM would have a look, and if it was good, would allow more painting to proceed in other areas.

For payment, the tenant would drop little hand written accounts into the PM when he paid his ‘full’ rent and PM would pay the accounts on my behalf with the rent money.

I would receive the accounts with PAID stamped on them and a record would be issued with my rental statement. The balance of money’s would be deposited into my rental properties account.

This worked out well as the PM got her full commission on the rent, and I got the tax deductable painting receipts.

There was a little hiccup though in that I couldn’t very well increase the rent on my tenant for a while as he was the one who did all the work to improve the place. But the great news is that he has just decided to move out, and I have a tenant going in on an increased rent of $10. [biggrin] Cheers Brenda

If you want to get out of a hole, first stop digging.