Property Manager & invoices

[Maggie Hayes]

Hello, all! I was hoping for some guidance. Are PMs required to indicate their repair fees, or do most PMs just inflate repair prices? We had plumbing work done. The estimate provided by the PM was 1k more than the estimate provided directly to me by the vendor. When I asked, I was told that the inflated cost was to cover expected additional repairs. The final cost ended up being exactly the same as the initial vendor estimate. The PM is refusing to provide us with original receipts and invoices from the vendor. All vendors have provided me with the invoices directly in the meantime, and it turns out the PM’s bills are all inflated. I realize some PMs charge a repair fee, our contract only states “charge per item” and none of the bills indicate a management fee. They just built random numbers to various totals, not even an equal percentage across the board. They did not get multiple estimates and in one instance I told them who to bring in. We have a keypad lock and the maintenance coordinator was not on site for most repairs. Additionally, after requesting the original invoices, the PM terminated our contract because of “our continued demands that go out of the scope of normal property management”. We briefly owned an investment property years ago, and we were always provided original vendor estimates and invoices by the PM. This just feels at the very minimum unethical. Am I way off here?