ASK THE LAWYER
PHIL KLASS | KLASS LAW GROUP
Work for Rent? Just Say “No”
I
get the question from time to time about
tenants offering to do work (electrical, plumbing, roofing, etc) in exchange for free or reduced rent. Usually, it’s asked from small
landlords who don’t want to be bothered spending
the time and money to hire outside professional
contractors and don’t want to have to do the work
themselves. I always answer the question the same
way: Don’t Do It!
When these arrangements are entered into, it
is often a verbal agreement and it is rarely made
clear exactly what work is to be done, when the
work is to be completed, how the quality of the
work is to be judged, who is going to pay for the
materials, how much rent credit will be earned,
what the legal relationship between the landlord
and the tenant will be, whether and how the tenant/worker will be insured, whether and how the
tenant’s income will be reported, whose tools will
be used, who else may participate in getting the
work done, and what happens if a dispute arises.
Colorado law provides that the landlord is
generally responsible for maintenance of the rental residence and discourages efforts to try to transfer maintenance obligations to the tenant. In order
to make the tenant responsible for