All Forum Posts by: Sandy J.

I am going to go over the contract again but at first glance I don't see anything specific to bill payments. If paying the property bills on time isn't specified as non-performance, there may not be a legal remedy. I haven't brought this up with the contact at the PMC yet because I was trying to figure out where we stand first. Best case scenario, she apologizes and offers to make it right.

I agree. We do know the due dates and it is ultimately our responsibility. However, the bills were received and appeared in the account ledger prior to the due date so I assumed they'd be paid out of our account on time. It cost hundreds in fees (multiple properties) and had we paid the bills we would have risked overpaying by thousands which would have put a strain on the cash flow since the overpayment would have been held by the government and applied to future bills six months from now. We will handle bills such as these ourselves going forward to be safe, but it's concerning that PMCs can advertise handling all aspects of a property but not be responsible for mismanaging owner funds. We can choose to be more involved, but I feel for those who feel they have no choice but to let a PMC take full control in order to keep their property (ex. elderly, estates, people who had to transfer out of town for work, etc.)

Our property management company paid the real estate taxes for the properties they manage for us late, resulting in significant late fees. 

Are they legally responsible to reimburse us for fees? We are in Virginia; so far I don’t see anything specific about this kind of situation in the contract. 

Thank you all for these tips so far; many great ideas. We owned and managed property in the past before selling some and placing these others with a management company. We were fortunate to afford at least one maintenance person who we trusted with keys, and one manager who could meet workers. We can't afford that now with less properties.

I would absolutely prefer that myself or my husband be present if the tenant is not, and maybe if they are. I can see many ways where tenants could make a repair request more complicated. For example, if they are anything like my mother they will talk to them until a 30 minute job takes half a day, lol. And I really wouldn't feel comfortable entrusting keys to someone unless I was absolutely sure I could trust them and that's a rare thing.

My concern is that we may have some unforeseen circumstance prevent us from meeting a contractor - we live in a rural area only minutes from the city center but because it is rural we have been inconvenienced by heavy snows and even had a bridge over a creek collapse stranding us for days. However; if it is an absolute emergency (busted water pipe, no heat below freezing), the tenant will most likely be there and I can arrange an emergency service call by phone.

Thank you all! Hope this post helps others as well.

What are the best ways to handle tenant maintenance, emergency and non-emergency, without hiring staff, doing repairs yourself, or being on call 24/7/365?

My husband and I have @10 units (single family and duplex) that we are thinking of self-managing. Property management companies in our area will do it all for 10% of rents, but we believe we can handle turnovers by hiring subs, and handle leasing and rental operations ourselves, so we would prefer to find a way to save that 10%. We used to do it all but we had more properties which supported keeping a handyman and property manager on staff.

Wondering how other owner/managers with just a few properties handle this?

Thought about finding one or two handyman services in the area who offer emergency services, but wondered about issues regarding access. I'd love to be able to leave keys in the contractor's possession so that if neither the tenant, my husband, or myself could meet them they could access the property. Is this legal? Advisable? Unwise?

Any other suggestions?