Disagreement with my Property Manager

[Chad Wallace]

I recently changed property management companies and they want to move forward with evicting a tenant who has not made their sewer and trash payments. The tenant owes $180 for these missed payments but the cost of evicting and finding a new tenant would exceed that by a long shot. Moreover, the tenant pays above market rent. Although, I shouldn't allow the tenant to break the rental agreement, it just doesn't make financial sense to evict this person over $180.

I have asked that, instead of posting a pay or quit notice, the pm inform the tenant that when the lease is up I intend to raise her rent by at least the amount of her sewer and trash payment.

How would you handle this? Can the pm evict without my consent?

The property management agreement I signed "grants the pm the sole right to institute legal and collection actions on behalf and at owners expense, to perform evictions, recover possession of the premises, and to settle and release such actions." Do you interpret this wording to mean that the pm can compel me to evict even if I really don't want to?

[Michael Seeker]

I would probably side with the PM on this. If the tenant isn't paying something now, it will only get worse in the future. It may only be $180 today, but it can quickly escalate. Do you want to wait until they owe more money than what it would cost to evict before doing so?

That being said, you employ the PM...if they don't do what you want, then you can fire them. If I were a PM company, I wouldn't work with owners that wanted to micromanage me though. As a PM, why would I want to bust my butt to deal with a crappy tenant because that's what the owner wants when I could find a good tenant and not have half the headaches but make the same amount of money.

At the end of the day, if you're not happy, let them know - you are the decision maker. If you don't want the tenant evicted, let them know you'll find a new PM if that's the approach they take.