I will tell you that in my company, all our property management agreements are set up as the Management company makes decisions on all applications and after the lease is signed we will send the copy of the lease to the owner. When the tenant signs an application, that is between my company and the tenant (with personal Identifiable information or PII). That means that no matter what happens I can’t share with the owner the tenant credit report (according to the terms of my contract with my credit reporting service). I also had to have an office inspection prior to obtaining the authority to pull credit reports. I had to prove that I knew that if I printed out the application with PII on it I know I how to safeguard it. I either have to spread it after I use it or keep it in a locked file cabinet (which they actually looked for the locked file cabinets in my office). What you are not understanding is that if someone’s PII gets out it is going to come back on my company. Also PII can not be shared via email.
We do not provide and PII to our owners of the tenants, this is so that we can know that the information is safeguarded in accordance with the terms and conditions that I signed for. In the event that our management agreement terminates with the tenant remaining in place, I will at that point provide the driver’s licenses/identification card, and a copy of the application the tenant filled out, pay stubs, tenancy verification and move in inspection report, but not the actual credit report. Remember this is only if the management agreement terminates and the tenant is still in place. We live in such a day and age that sending things through email is not safe, you are compromising that PII (personal identifiable Identification).
The next bit that non Property managers don't realize is that due to Fair house in laws, we have to treat every application the same weather it is a single family home, or condo, Townhome or apartment. I actually had an owner that told me that they didn't want an unmarried couple living in their property. This is a Virginia Fair housing Violation (familial Status). I immediately told them that they were wrong and when they still wanted me to violate the law, I ended their management agreement. At the end of the day I will not let any one owner put my Real Estate Licenses i jeopardy based on not knowing the laws the VRLTA (Virginia Residential landlord Tenant Act),or Fair housing. I know that sounds harsh, but there are HUD actually is out there sending people out testing to see if we are treating every application fairly.
If you are a landlord and not using a licensed Real Estate Agent as a property manager you can get away with not complying with all the fair housing laws, but when you are like my company and you have multiple properties available to rent at one time, that is when it is very easy to find out if we treat all applications the same across the entire portfolio.
At the end of the day you should just have a conversation with your current property manager 1st ask them how many properties that they actually own. Then you can understand if they don’t own properties of their own they don’t understand the urgency of getting your property up and operational and rented asap. They also don’t understand how important it is to have fair and fees. Then talk to them about what you want in the lease, they can advise you if that is something that is appropriate, or if it is excess or a violation. At the end of the day remember they are the real estate professional, if you don’t agree with the property manager and don’t feel that they are working in your best interest then I would recommend that you terminate the services.
keep in mind that a Property Management Agreement is like a long Marriage, easy to get in to it, Costly and hard to get out of it. Make sure That management company is the right one for you before you take the plunge. Also make sure you interview at least 3 different companies and ask their fees, their business structure and how communication works.
