Need advice dealing with Property Management Company

[Kevin Conley]

I bought my first investment property, a duplex about 2 years ago. The property is in FL, while I live in NC. A friend of mine's parents have a property management company local to the property, so I thought I could trust them to take care of the property for me. 

They originally had 2 tenants that were receiving government assistance, so checks were being deposited directly into my account from those programs. They still had to pay the difference in rent to my management company, but management would take those checks and use the money to make repairs, a process I never approved. But alas, there were repairs that needed to be made, so I didn't make a fuss about it. 

After about a year, one of my tenants stopped paying his portion of the rent, and according to the management company needed to be evicted, because ambulances had shown up for someone OD'ing in the unit multiple times. But, I was only made aware on the 2nd or 3rd occurrence. The tenant fought the eviction, and I was told by my property management company to cut a one-time check to this lawyer of theirs and they would handle it. Tenant was eventually evicted, but apparently trashed the place, obviously they were doing drugs and whatever else in there.

In the meantime, I got a new lease on the other side of my duplex, rent increased over there, and the management company was using the rent paid there to make repairs on the evicted unit. So, I haven't been receiving any rent monies from either for some time. And when I asked my management company for statements, which took nearly 4 months to get, there was a long list of repairs, additional legal fees, and money apparently still owed to them for repairs that had been made. They finally found a tenant to replaced the evicted side.  And while the statement with repairs had a deficit, it should have been cleared with the rent checks paid after 2 months, but still I haven't received any money from either side going on 11 months now. Another issue, is that some of these repairs were in excess of $500 and I was never made aware of those repairs. And I'm only given account statements by request, which again have months of a delay. 

In this time, I needed to get insurance renewed on the property. And my carrier wanted me to get a 4-pt inspection done. My management company assured me we were ready for such an inspection. I paid for that inspection myself, but the management company when they met the inspector out there, told him to leave, because they didn't believe we would've passed the inspection with this inspector. In that time, my mortgage company saw the lapse, and spent $4000 on hazard insurance, something I just had to eat. My management company said they would get a new inspector out there, but it's been 4 months, and I still haven't seen anything come through, and mortgage company is sending me renewals for my hazard insurance. 

I was also never given copies of the rental agreements. According to the statement they gave me a few months ago, they have been sure to take their fee out of all the rent checks, while I have received absolutely nothing. I want to sell at this point, even though there should be cash flow coming in at this point. But I'm worried that I don't have what I need to prove the property is occupied, and the tenants are even paying their rent. 

Would a new owner just need to deal with the tenants and put them under their own management company? I'm just unsure of the right way to break away from this, any advice would be helpful. Thank you.