Stuck with a Bad Property Manager in Detroit

[Yvette Daniels]

Hello, 

I own a single family home in Detroit. My property manager has never been good with paperwork, but I am at my wit's end. The property manager has a contract with HUD, where she rents out properties to tenants in the HUD program. The first couple of years, things were bearable, like I mentioned, the team was not great with paperwork, but I was receiving the rent. Well, I noticed several months went by and I had not received a payment. When I inquired about it, I was told there was a clerical error with housing and they were working to get it fixed. Fast forward, months have passed, I have been going back and forth with the property manager, turns out Housing is claiming that repairs need to be completed and the rent/property was put into abatement. My property manager claims to never have gotten any notice from housing about the repairs.

The tenant has vacated the property, approximately one month ago.  A "squatter" has moved in and they are moving slowly to rectify the situation.  From my understanding, the "squatter" is a friend of the previous tenant and will move out, but this team of people are not aggressively managing this situation. 

I want to fire this property management team, but fear that if I do, it will be a nightmare collecting the back rent.  Not sure if I should cut my losses and hire another team to either manage or flip this unit, and hire a lawyer to audit the property management team.  A lawyer will probably end up costing more than the actual revenue of the property. 

I am really not sure of the best move to make.  A lot of this could have been avoided if the property management team paid more attention to the property.  Open to all suggestions at this point. 

Thanks, 

Yvette