Comments on: The Problem With Property Management

By: Stefanie

Stefanie — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:37:20 +0000

Hi again! After posting yesterdays post, my former PM actually called the ‘dancer’ tenant and told her that I fired her and that I was going to evict her and that I was a bi!@&. How unprofessional! I found this out because the tenant went to one of my other tenants house where even another tenant was, which I manage both of them myself, and apologized for the disturbance. Unfortunately, when they questioned her about the syringes and all of the traffic, she totally denied everything. But the good thing is that the lease states that if the lease is broken I can give a one day notice to vacate. She is only 23! She did not rent this house by herself. I was told that when she moved in, there were dozens of people moving her in. Lots of ‘ladies of the night’ showed up too. Her mother is a meth addict, her father shoots something with the needles….she actually TOLD my other tenants that! I don’t want a meth lab or a prostitute in my house. I’m going to post eviction tomorrow. I’m pretty sure she will go because when she put her garbage out and it got spread all over the yard, not only was a syringe found, but a letter from her probation officer. I’m pretty sure I won’t have to do much other than tell her to go. I will tell her that I know she is running a business out of the house….NOT in the lease!

Rachael–If I lived in Ontario I wouldn’t have any rental properties. They are WAY too strict. The law is more on the Lessee’s side here in Texas.

Anyway, thanks for the input! Wish me luck!

By: Rachelle

Rachelle — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:06:12 +0000

Hi Earl,

I hope her property is not in Ontario, because here it is a nightmare to evict tenants. Even if they don’t pay rent it takes at least 4 months, we have no security deposit, pet clauses in leases are void, criminal checks are considered an invasion of privacy and discrimination is illegal and enforced.

It depends entirely on where her property is and the laws in that area. Here in Ontario if as long as she paid the rent it would be extremely difficult to get rid of her tenant.

Leases here are superceded by the Residential Tenancies Act and leases automatically go month to month after the year is up. There are very few grounds that can be used to evict even after the lease is up.

The only protection you have really is a thorough screening up front because once they are in not paying rent you’re screwed.

By: earl piercy

earl piercy — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:29:44 +0000

Hey, Stephanie: Although I’m not an attorney, there is no question that a lease is a legal contract and any violation of the terms (having pets, etc.) gives you the right to redress. If the PM refuses to do their job, you can probably sue them for negligence. As a practical matter, asking the tenant to leave (and even providing finacial incentive) may be the least painful. Earl

By: Stefanie

Stefanie — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:31:34 +0000

I have the same problem as Earl does! My property manager talked me into putting an exotic dancer into my property, which I was very skeptical about. My PM has a HUGE business, teaches real estate, has hundreds of properties she inherited from her father and not manages two of my properties, until this morning. I fired her. She was informed SEVERAL times about the tenant having a pit bull that was not on the lease. She went to the house and did not go in the house to see if there was a pit bull. She did see two dogs ALSO not on the lease and did nothing. Now, the neighbors are saying that she is a prostitute and has several people living there. My PM has been informed about all of this and keeps telling me that it is not true. My neighbors found syringes in her garbage that was not properly set out and the animals got to it. When I told my PM of all of this, she told me that she only evicts when rent is not paid. Can’t you evict for all the other things? She has wasted my time and money. I’ll have to do it myself. Any advice would be appreciated. I live in Texas…

By: earl piercy

earl piercy — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 12:15:01 +0000

What recourse do I have against a property manager who has put terrible tenants into my property, not checked on them over a two year period, and now the property is heavily damaged by them far beyond their ability to pay?

By: Brandon Osman

Brandon Osman — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:53:31 +0000

I am the director of business development for a highly ethical AND successful New York-based property management company. We deal with buildings (mostly co-ops and condos) with over 200 apartments. What Mr. Cheap is saying is 100% true, and our company is struggling to overcome these “lemons” or what we like to call “bottom feeders”. It almost put us out of business at one point. It is sad that one of our biggest competators is probably the worst in the industry when it comes to value of service. With the economic crisis at hand, many co-op board members are choosing the lowest price. What the prospective client does not know about these lemons is that they are looking to make one years pay off the contract with no intentions to do work, or be re-hired. But as a potential client, how can you know the intentions? What has helped out company stay afloat is our reputation in the industry. We always make sure to show our clients exactly how much value we are adding to thier property. We let prospective clients speak to current clients about thier experience with our company. We show our track record to them explicitly showing them that our client retention far exceeds the other PM companies.

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:51:40 +0000

Tony: I’m 100% serious. Feel free to read the 2nd last paragraph and comments 12-15 if you think I’m joking or don’t understand my reasoning.

Thanks for your comments!

By: Tony Sena

Tony Sena — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:32:19 +0000

Like most of the comments stated, you are going to have your good Property Managers and you are going to have your bad ones.

“and in the case of a small number of HIGHLY ethical companies (that will naturally tend to go out of business, we’ll get to that later)”

Are you serious? So if you are an ethical property manager operating your own property management business you can expect to go out of business? I actually had to read that statement twice. There are many ethical property managers in the business who enjoy what they are doing and make a decent living without having to take “kickbacks”!

By: Melanie

Melanie — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:33:21 +0000

Before you put all Property Managers in the same class, think about the good ones out there – such as myself. Yes, the bad Property Managers out there do give the rest of us the good hardworking PM’s a bad name. Some of us are hardworking and do our job correctly. It is a shame to read such articles such as this.

By: Rachelle

Rachelle — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:27:00 +0000

I forgot the most obvious… call the police first. They are very concerned with staff stealing and fraud.