Terrible property manager - need advice

[Olga Levin]

Hi everyone,

I am pretty new to the forum and I wish I read the posts about managing a property manager before I got into this mess. Can someone recommend a course of action for this situation:

I have a property in a rough area of Atlanta. The property manager couldn't get the property rented for months, then someone moved in but we never saw any money. She said they couldn't pay and moved out. She asked for money to fix the property. It was months ago, she couldn't find anyone according to her, but told us she was in the process of converting the property into a short term rental, so people could pay by day or week. We decided to switch to another PM instead. I sent her a notice and told he a new PM will meet with her to do a walk through in the property. She made an appointment with him, but never showed up and after avoiding his calls and emails finally texted him that she has nothing to do with the property and doesn't have the key and to leave her alone. After re-keying the property the new PM just let me know that the property is completely trashed, appliances including the water heater was stolen and water flooded parts of the house. There is trash all over and it is a complete mess.

I know that we rollayly screwed up by not keeping her under control and will now have to pay thousands to fix the damage. She took advantage of the fact that we are out of state and couldn't come by to check if what she was saying was true

Can anyone suggest a course of action to go after the PM? I believe she was renting out the property without sending us any money for it. The property wasn't broken into, it was under a lock when the locksmith showed up, which makes me think that she had to do with all the appliances being stolen too. Since we are not local, I do not think we can go to a small claims court. What recourse do we have if any?

[Dawn Anastasi]

Originally posted by @Olga Levin:

Thank you Ali,

It sure is a horror story. How do you manage your properties all the way from LA?

I think everyone that manages from afar is just managing their property manager (PM) and that person or company has to be reputable and trustworthy. Letting someone move in without security deposit + first month's rent is a dead giveaway they are not a competant PM.