PM maintenance team overcharging hours?

[Account Closed]

I own a single family rental in SC, just south of Charlotte, NC. Our property management company is based in central Charlotte, about 30 minutes north. My tenants recently submitted two separate maintenance requests to replace the doorbell and replace the kitchen faucet sprayer head (just the head). Anyone who’s performed these tasks knows each one takes about 5 minutes. And our property is 5 minutes from Lowe’s, so parts aren’t an issue.

The PM’s maintenance team charged 3 hours for each separate job, stating that they include drive time from their office.  When I asked about the job times, they agreed to reduce the doorbell charge but held firm on 3 hours for the faucet because they claimed it took time to troubleshoot. 

So I have three questions: 1) is it standard to charge owners for drive time from the prior job site or office; 2) am I crazy to think these are egregious overcharges; and 3) what actions can I take beyond requesting that they review and lower the charges?

[Grace Gudenkauf]

Quote from @Account Closed:

Melanie, I appreciate the input. I agree and we’ve been weighing the possibility of managing the property ourselves. If we could use the PM solely for sourcing tenants, payment processing, and any eviction issues, then I think we’d be comfortable acting as the primary point for maintenance.

 Joe, I recommend self-managing. You can easily learn to source tenants yourself. If needed pay for someone to show the property. There are plenty of free payment processors like Baselane and Innago. I use TenantCloud for around 30 properties and it's $50 per month. For eviction issues just hire an attorney. For majority of people I actually think self-management is the best route. We pay a LOT of money for a property, and management is the key to ensuring it's success. I think it's good for owner's to be a little bit hands on in the management until they build the right systems and process to be more passive, or better yet hire an internal manager yourself once your portfolio gets to the right size.