All Forum Posts by: Nancy Sathre-Vogel

the other thing she did was charge pet rent every month - an additional $25. I did not know the tenant was paying that. She only listed the $1040 on my statement, but had the additional $25/month listed on the ledger. That pet rent should have been coming to me, no?

This is a typical report from her - I've blacked out the tenant name. Now that I have parted ways with the PM, she sent me the ledger for that house. During this time, she added a $50 late fee, and a $75 3-day notice fee. Basically, every single month, she added those two fees to the ledger, but they were never listed on my owner statement.

She was adding the late fees onto the tenant report, but not the owner report. All I got from her was a statement of the rent paid and the expenses. I suppose, looking at it in hindsight, that I should have realized the rent was coming in late every month as that is dated in the statement. But I didn't look closely at the dates - I just saw the payment was there and assumed all was well.

Should the PM have been putting those late fees on my owner statement? Is that normal? 

Obviously, I've never dealt with something like this before. I started suspecting "something" was off after about 5 or 6 months with this PM, and I started scrutinizing the statements trying to figure out what it was. There were no big red flags in the owner statements that I was getting.

I've posted here a few times about a bad experience I had with a PM. The more I look into it, the more convinced I am that she knew precisely what she was doing - which makes me wonder how common this is. 

Unbeknownst to me, my tenant started paying her rent late every month about 15 months ago. My PM didn't do anything about it at all, except just record the late fees in her ledger. That's it. She never really made an effort to collect the fees. The tenant "knew" those late fees were there, but since the PM never forced the issue, the tenant never paid them.

This went on for a while, with the late fees simply piling up, but no attempt to collect being made. Finally, when the amount of the late fees totaled the amount of the security deposit, my PM told me that the tenant paid late every month and hadn't paid the fees. She suggested evicting the tenant - which I agreed with. 

Now, the PM has used the entire security deposit to pay the late fees, leaving nothing to cover damages when the tenant moves out today. 

My strong suspicion is that the PM knew precisely what she was doing. It was a good racket. She could charge those late fees, do absolutely nothing collect them, and then take the deposit. It was an easy thousand bucks in her pocket.

Is this common at all? Is this something unethical PMs do? What other ruses do they use to get extra money? I am thinking about whether I want to hire another PM or just do it myself, but want to know what things I need to think about should I decide to look for another PM.

Thanks. I am trying to get info put together, then I will call them and see about formally filing a complaint.

I have been dealing with a nightmare situation with a property manager. While I don't think she did anything illegal, there is no question that she has engaged in a lot of very unethical behavior. I plan to leave honest, straight forward reviews on Yelp and all other sites I can find, but I wonder what else I can do? I honestly think people need to be warned about this woman.

Well said, Chris. I am just now breaking ties with a REALLY bad PM. And I do mean bad. She managed our three houses for a year and never once drove by any of them. Not once. She had never, ever even seen the houses. Never. The only things she did was collect the rent and arrange for repairs if a tenant submitted a request. That's it. 

And so - for her - there is no question that it wasn't worth paying her 8% of the rent. She didn't earn it. Not even close. 

BUT - and this is a big but - the manager we had before was worth every penny we paid her - and then some. She knew everything that was going on with every house. She knew each tenant and their kids and their pets. She was on top of everything. 

Even on months when nothing went wrong, she was worth her weight in gold just knowing that we didn't have to even think about the properties. If stuff did go wrong - then she was doubly worth her weight.

I guess the moral of the story is that a PM is very much worth it, but only if you get a good one. Having a bad PM is worse than having no PM.

Thanks. I'm dreading going over there on Friday when the tenant is moving out. I hope it's not bad. 

I have a feeling I'll just write off this PM and move on - not worth the effort to try and get anything from her. With any luck, there aren't many damages to the house...

That's my feeling. it seems to me that, rather than just putting down $50 or $75 on the account every month, she should have been hounding the tenant to try to get the late fee. She did nothing - but now she wants to keep the entire security deposit to cover it. 

But - how do I get it from her? I've now fired her and we're parting ways. I have no leverage over her at all. Suggestions?

Good question. My concern would be if a guest trashed the place - would you have any recourse?