Property Manager Firing?
Hello friends: I am new to the Bigger Pockets community and have already run into trouble with my investment adventure. My husband and I live in California, but purchased a single family home in Columbus. My husband signed a contact with a (single owner) property management/general contractor company (I was never asked to sign the contract). It would be too long to detail our entire tale of woe, but to sum up the most recent events 1) we have gotten late rent payments every month, despite tenants paying on time. 2) We still have no accurate monthly statement from April, no statement from May, and no statement or rent from June. 3) He failed to transfer the water bill into our tenants names, resulting in us needing to pay the water bill ourselves 3) on May 26th, I asked for a) the missing monthly statements, b) confirmation that the water bill issues were now resolved, c) confirmation that a safety railing we paid for in April was installed and completed, and d) to give our tenants proper notice that I would be coming to town on June 11th and that I would like to inspect the safety railing at that time. His email gave an out of office message from May 4th -15th(!!!) and stated that he would have limited access to phones/internet. I emailed and texted asking him to get back with me whenever he got back into town. Yesterday, I finally called the tenants directly and asked if the safety rail had been installed. My tenant informed me that the work was not completed, but she had received a call from our manager yesterday that he was coming to complete the work today. She asked me about the water bill, and I told her that I would talk with her on June 11th about that after I figured out what happened. 15 minutes later I FINALLY got a call back from my manager (a full week after my initial query) promising to provide the rent and the missing statements. He said he had asked the tenant to leave him a check for the water, but that she had demurred, saying that she had spoken with me directly. He asked how I wanted him to handle the water payment and payments like it in the future. I told him that I looked forward to receiving the missing items, and that I would handle the water issue directly with the tenant and send him a receipt for his records.
I didn't receive a reply back, nor have I received my rent or the promised statements.
And those are simply the most recent headaches. My question for this forum are:
1) do I have a legal way out of this management contract since I never signed it to begin with?
2) do I have a chance of getting out of this contract through claiming negligence or breach of contract?
3) if I cannot get out of the contract, is it reasonable to ask the tenants to pay me the rent directly and then me dole out the "management" fee to this manager (since I can be counted on to do so on time?)???
Thank you for any direction you can provide!