How would you handle this rental agency situation?

[zoebartlett]

I'm hoping to get a little advice on something because I'm not sure what else to do. Sorry that this is so long!

My husband and I own a condo that we haven't lived in for over a year. We were moving away and we couldn't sell the condo before we left so we agreed to rent it out. We found a property management company that agreed to work with us and find tenants to move in. Our tenant's lease is through this company, so the employees at this company are acting as her landlord on our behalf. We have moved back to the area, but our tenant is great, so we decided to let her stay and renew her lease. We also have no interest as acting as her landlord because neither of us have experience with this. We thought it would be best to leave it up to the professionals to do this all the time.

The property management company seemed pretty good at first, handling any issue that came up. The problem is that they're not very good at communicating with us. For instance:

-- There was a leak in the bathroom ceiling that had been an issue before we moved out of the condo. We called someone in to address the issue and we thought the problem was fixed. Well, unbeknownst to my husband and me, the ceiling began to leak again shortly after we moved out and our tenant moved in. It had been a problem for months before the property management company let us know that anything had been going on. The problem was eventually fixed, but communication was never great. When I asked the management company why they hadn't let us know about this, they said they thought it should have been an easy fix and they didn't want to bother us with something so easy. Okay, fine. We don't want to be bothered by every little thing, but still...we should have been told.

-- Over the past year, a few things have needed to be fixed and/or replaced. When this has happened, instead of being billed separately for these things and receiving the full rent amount, the money we owe is taken out of the checks that are cut to us. We're not always notified when this happens, so there have been a few months where our checks were lower than what we thought they'd be. Sometimes we did expect it, but not others, if that makes sense. Some things were pretty costly, so my husband and I have needed to pay for certain things over a few months' time.

-- One guy was acting as the property manager for our specific unit, but we weren't notified when he was pulled off our condo (account?) and there was another guy taking over. This would have been nice to know so that we'd know who to contact in the future.

-- I have a very hard time reaching anyone at the rental company when I call. It doesn't matter who I call -- the billing person, the property manager, or the owner himself.

-- The generic e-mail address on their site (info@...) seems to send things into the black hole of the Internet because messages that I sent to the owner weren't received.

-- As I type this, I realize that this company doesn't seem legit, given the info. I've provided. I can't stand their lack of communication with us, but I do believe it's a legitimate company.

What would you do if you were in our shoes? Again, sorry for the length of this post! We obviously don't want to be taken advantage of. We have no experience with this, so we're not sure how to handle it.

 

[lyra]

Honestly? I'd take over the responsibility of landlord and cut out the middleman completely. We lived in a few place before we bought our first house, and we actually only ever needed to call on a landlord *once*, when a car hit the side of our unit. Otherwise, we went years without any issues. Once you make sure everything is in good working order in the unit, it should be easy really. I assume you're paying some percentage to the leasing agency? You could be saving that amount for maintenance issues. If you have the right tenant I think you'll have far less hassles looking after it yourselves than you're having right now. Plus you'd always have the advantage of being able to get bids for work that needed to be done and you'd know you weren't getting ripped off.

 

[mary poppins]

I agree with lyra. Now that you are back in the location near the condo, you may want to consider taking over landlord responsibilities directly. Do you have a contract with the property manager? Do you have a copy? Does it address any of the issues you've been having? Does it have a termination clause?

 

[April20]

I agree. I'd take it out of their hands and deal with it directly. I think you'll have a greater comfort level if you know what's going on, even if it means you have to arrange for the fix for some things. You're back in the area, so hopefully it wouldn't be as daunting as it would if you were out of state.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I'd also take over responsibility in your situation. When a third party gets involved, things can always end up screwy. The best rentals we've ever lived in were ones where the landlord and I were in direct communication. When something happened (like a leaky toilet) I could email and we'd have it promptly taken care of.

 

[zoebartlett]

Thanks so much for the advice Lyra, Mary Poppins, April, and MC.

Lyra -- We let our tenant do a few things to spruce up the condo before she moved in. Actually, we let her do more than a few things:

* She painted every room.
* She removed the wall to wall carpet in the living area/hallways and replaced it with laminate flooring (we couldn't swing real hard wood).
* She had the bathroom and kitchen cabinets professionally painted white.
* She put tile in the bathroom to replace the laminate flooring that was coming up.

She has a lot of family members who works in different trades, and she got a great deal on labor. The only thing we "had" to do was split the cost of the materials with her. We also bought a new fridge and stove. She wanted to install ceiling fans but we said no. Nothing really needed to be done, but the condo looks AMAZING now, and we're so glad that she wanted to take on all of that. The condo is her home now, so if she's considering buying the place some day, we wanted to appease her. Plus, the condo could have used some sprucing up. The reason I mentioned all this is that during and after all of this, she was pretty high maintenance. It was kind of nice not to the get the constant barrage of phone calls she apparently made to the property management company.

We didn't want to be landlords while we were living so far away but now that we're back, it would be doable. The only thing is, neither my husband nor I are handy, and I'm afraid that we'll get many phone calls from our tenant.

Yes, we are paying a percentage of the rent we're charging to the rental company.

 

[zoebartlett]

Mary Poppins -- We do have a contract with the property management company but I haven't checked it out yet. Since our tenant just renewed her lease through them for another year, I'm not sure how that would work if we backed out of our agreement with them.

Oh I forgot, the other thing is that the company was going to increase her rent, but we gave them a little wiggle room to negotiate on price with the tenant. We never heard back from this company telling us what we'd be getting rent once the increase happened, and we never got a signed copy of our tenant's renewed lease. There's no excuse for this in my book.

I'll have to take a look at our agreement later.

 

[zoebartlett]

April and MC -- Like I said earlier, now that we're back, it would be doable to act as landlords. We got very lucky with our tenant, but if something happens and she needs to move out, there's no guarantee that the next tenant will be great. I've heard horror stories of people treating rental units poorly, and I don't want to get involved in chasing down someone to pay their rent on time, etc. Our tenant considers our condo her home, so I don't think that would happen, but you never know.

We will give it some thought though.

 

[JewelFreak]

Zoe, first of all, I'd ace that management company yesterday, whatever you decide to do afterward. Did you check them with the BBB? Your contract must have some provision for lack of performance -- and not sending you the lease or telling you even what rent was agreed on surely would qualify as that. You should be receiving a monthly statement showing money in and money out & where it went. Why not take it to a lawyer to check your options? It would take hardly any billing time & no doubt is tax deductable.

Can dig your reluctance to get phone calls all the time, but I think you're selling yourselves short. When you lived in the condo you must have had workpeople you called when needed, right? So it's not like starting from scratch. As it is, you are paying for repairmen (without often knowing how much, for heaven's sake!) AND paying the rental agency.

If it's a real company, the characters running it are either totally inexperienced or shady. I predict they've been skimming from you.

As to your tenant -- tell her you're available by email or by phone at specific hours, say, 7 to 9 pm. You may have to screen calls, but that's a small thing.

For Pete's sake, don't project into the future! Why are you worrying now about a tenant running off on the rent when you have one under contract that most landlords only dream about?? Cross bridges only when you come to them, girl! As it is, you're getting ripped off while you agonize over a tenant you don't have running away from rent you haven't lost!!

--- Laurie

 

[JewelFreak]

More things to think about, just occurred to me:

What sort of repairs have they allegedly had done? What if it were something that required a licensed repairman? Do you know who they used? If they called their brother-in-law or best friend from high school who's "handy" but not licensed, and it's done wrong, causing damage to condo or building, YOU are liable. Possibly for more than your own place; for the building too. At the least you'd spend years & a fortune in court.

Do you have proof these repairs actually happened? Have you asked the tenant? It's possible you've been billed for nonexistent fees, or a big add-on, as in: he calls his b-i-l & says, "I'll pay you $50 to fix that toilet, we'll bill the landlord for $100 & split the profit."

Demand to see receipts for all repairs you paid for!

Like it or not, owning a rental property is a business whose management you can't expect someone else to be responsible for. We were in the same position w/a condo in Amsterdam, Holland, after we moved back to the U.S. It was 15 yrs before the market improved enough there so we could sell it at a small profit. We managed -- you can too. If you want to use an agency, check BBB & ask your realtor about co.'s with good reputations. Then take ANY contract to a lawyer for review BEFORE you sign it!

Tell us what happens, ok? Good luck!

 

[perry]

There is nothing wrong with using a Management Company instead of doing it yourself - and I'll bet that you can find a better one.

You should be receiving more information - and you should be able to quickly contact the people you need to talk with.

Perry

 

[vc10um]

Zoe...I haven't read all the intervening responses, but I can speak from the tenant side on this one.

We currently rent a condo in the DC area and began renting it through a rental company. We met the owner at the showing and she connected with me through LinkedIn after our first month in the condo. The rental company took care of some basic repairs when we moved in (a leaky faucet, some catch plates on door frames that were a bit off) and seemed pretty easy to work with. That is, until we missed out on some pretty important registrations for our subdivision (pool passes and guest parking passes to name a few). They were receiving all the mail as the landlords and not forwarding it to either us, or the owner, in a timely manner.

After a discussion with the owner, she decided to terminate the contract with the property mangagement company, draw up our own lease following their model, and she purchased a home warranty that we can now rely on if anything major needs fixed (it covers all appliances, etc), allowing my FI and I to make minor repairs (replacing the knob on the shower handle when it got stripped, for example) ourselves and deducting the costs from the next month's rent.

The system has worked really well for us so far.

Also, our landlord lives in the Boston area, so a significant distance away.

HTH!

 

[Steel]

Great advice.

Go check your contract with the agency that would be step 1 IMHO.

Oh, and demand an actual e-mail address, this info@..... lark is for nuts to enquire - you are a very well paying customer.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

April and MC -- Like I said earlier, now that we're back, it would be doable to act as landlords. We got very lucky with our tenant, but if something happens and she needs to move out, there's no guarantee that the next tenant will be great. I've heard horror stories of people treating rental units poorly, and I don't want to get involved in chasing down someone to pay their rent on time, etc. Our tenant considers our condo her home, so I don't think that would happen, but you never know.

We will give it some thought though.

Yeah, you gotta ask for a BIG deposit and maybe state no pets. I know we all love our pets on PS and I've always had a cat and have found great places we couldn't move into b/c of that, BUT it protects your carpet! Our current place had only a $900 deposit, but previous was $1800 AND we had to pay first & last-months rent of $1800, so we paid $5400 to move in. That helps guarantee that the individual(s) have some funds, along with getting rental references & employer info and *also* checking that they've not had problems paying utilities.

Good luck!

 

[elrohwen]

I would take over the landlord responsibilities *if* you plan to move back into the unit if your current tenant leaves. I know you said she plans to be a long term tenant, and she sounds great, so in that case I think you'd save yourself money and hassle by just dealing with her directly. I call my landlord about twice a year, mostly about the next lease, or something stupid (once the toilet seat broke, and once the screens had to be taken off so the unit could be power washed and I asked him to do it because we didn't feel like it). I wouldn't necessarily want to be a landlord to a bunch of PITA tenants, but with a good one it should be easy and stress free, especially since you're living in the area.

Plus, if the company isn't communicating with you, they're probably not communicating with your tenant and making her frustrated as well.

 

[zoebartlett]

JewelFreak -- Thanks for your advice! I appreciate it. I need to find our agreement with the rental company and see what it says (it's been a while since I felt like I may need it). As for the BBB, I checked this morning and they're not listed. The BBB site said that there was one complaint filed against this company but that it had been resolved. I'll talk to my husband about going with a lawyer. We'll have an in-depth conversation this weekend, when we'll have more time to sit down and go through things. Your first post made me laugh! I know, I tend to worry about things that aren't even a problem, when this thing could be a HUGE problem. I'll keep that in perspective. Thanks for the reminder.

This whole thing makes me nervous, and I'm regretting being so trusting of this company. Of COURSE these things are red flags, but it's seeing your questions and comments written out (and my posts) that's making it so clear now. I feel kind of dumb for not questioning things earlier.

Vc -- Thanks so much for your reply and your advice!

Steal -- I know, I know, I feel like an idiot right now. I hate vague e-mail addresses, and I should have caught on to that earlier. When we moved away originally, we were in somewhat of a hurry, and we had a hard time coming up with rental agencies. This one did seem good at the time...

Thanks MC! Our tenant did have a dog and the company did ask for a deposit as well as a monthly pet fee that was tacked on to her rent. She has gotten rid of the dog (well, her ex-husband took him), so that's no longer an issue.

El -- The condo is too small for us now, and my husband has no interest in moving back there. We would if we absolutely needed to, but we hope that won't happen.