How to collect back rent increases and pet fees

[Huong T Nguyen]

HI everyone, I decided to self-manage my property due to a lot of problems I have had with the current property management who I hired two years ago the day I closed on my property. Today is Feb 12 and I will officially manage my property on March 1. My PM had all leases in their custody till I picked them up a few days ago.

Now when going through the leases that the tenants signed with the previous owner or with this PM, I realized that PM never enforced rent increase clauses in those leases or collected annual pet fee ($150/tenant with pets) over the last 2 years. The total back rent increase and pet fee amount is over $2300, of which PM is entitled 8%. 

I do not know how long the PM will take to collect such amount from my tenants, but PM should subtract this amount from their PM fee for February (about $1500, plus tenant finder fee of $800). Is that the right way to go? My property is in Maryland, but outside of any rent control cities. 

Thank you in advance for sharing your wisdom on this matter!