Property Manager Trying to Stick it to Me?

[Timothy Sparrow]

Hello Everyone,

First, sorry about the lenth of this post...I'm pretty upset with the situation and wanted to get it off my chest.

Long time reader, first time poster. I have a couple rental properties however I recently hired my first property manager for a property in Northern Virginia. I hired them in February to find a tenant and manage the property in my abscence. I have since moved 800 miles away. We found a tenant and she moved in this past weekend. I lived in the property for 6 months before I left and renovated almost everything however I never touched anything electrical. Also, my home inspector gave me an "all clear" on the electrical during the walk through. I installed new ceiling fans upstairs which all worked when I left. My property manager emailed me to tell me the master bed ceiling fan was not working and a couple outlets were dead and they needed to send one of thier maintenance men out.

Ok, now please read the email I received from them today:

"Good evening, Mr. XXXXXX.

We have sent out several XXXX Handyman technicians at different times to investigate the electrical issues that we have discussed through previous emails. While investigating the power problems in your home, one of technician found that the light at the top of the stairs had 240 volts as well as the attic light fixture. As much as our initial effort was to minimize your costs and not get a licensed electrician involved, we had no option but to call on a licensed electrician to investigate and resolve the issues. We called upon XXXX Electric, who is one of our trusted vendors. We were under the assumption that something had gone wrong at the breaker box and we would still be well within our previous estimate.

Upon investigating the issue with the ceiling fan, the electrician notified us of numerous building code violations that are causing these severe issues throughout the property. It appears that during the home remodeling stage some building codes were not adhered to. What he found was that there were exposed wires in the attic, open wiring connections in the attic, incorrect gauge wiring, and ground wires not connected. Any one of these items would be a fire hazard; all of them combined was a situation that required the electrician to either immediately notify the County or begin to repair the issues and eliminate the threat of fire. Notifying the County would have meant an immediate visit from the fire department/fire marshal who would have condemned the building unsafe for residency, having to schedule an inspection with the County to validate that all violations were corrected, paying a fine of $350 for each violation found in the house, and having to break the lease because the house could not be delivered as agreed upon.

For all of these reasons, we asked that the violations be corrected as quickly as possible. Originally the electrician was planning to call the county on the spot, however we convinced the electrician not to call county and told him that he can do the work immediately which meant there was no reason to report the property to the county. I have attached a copy of the final invoice from XXXX Electric Services for your property at XXXX. for work performed. The original pricing for the work was at $100.00 an hour. The electrician spent over 20 hours working on rectifying the issues. We negotiated a 25% discount to reduce the expense for you as much as possible. He sent us his final invoice today.

Would you like to send the check directly to XXXX Electric or would you like us to pay the invoice on your behalf and charge your account?"

Needless to say my first experience with a property manger isn't starting off well. My issues with this email:

1. They performed 20 hours of work and I receive no communication whatsoever until now??

2. The "trusted vendor" they chose to come out threatened to call the county on the spot? Doesn't sound like a very trusting relationship to me

3. I never touched any wiring while living there and the inspector gave me the green light (although I don't know how closely he looked at the wiring).

So here is my question for all you out there in the bigger pockets community: How would you respond to this situation? In my current state of mind I want to fire this PM, find another, and report these guys to the BBB and NPMA.

Please help this newbie. I'm extremely disheartened by this and am second guessing being an absentee landlord.

Tim

[Anthony Gayden]

@Timothy Sparrow the first thing I would do is ask to talk to the electrician. I would want a detailed list from them of everything that was done. I also would want pictures. If I am spending thousands of dollars on a property and I can't physically see the work being done, pictures are mandatory. Also a detailed invoice of all materials and charges, and any warranties should be scanned and emailed to you. I also would like the electrician to explain to me the work.

I personally don't blame the electrician, but I would want to be certain that the work that was stated was actually completed, and I want to be certain that everything that the property manager was claiming is true.

The next thing I would do is fire your property manager. I could care less if they thought the situation demanded immediate attention, it isn't their money that is being spent. It is total BS if they are suggesting that a second quote from a different electrician couldn't have been obtained. When it comes to expensive repairs, I like to get multiple quotes so that I know I am not paying the single most expensive contractor in town.

@Brian Mathews you are taking this too personally since you are a contractor, but there is no way I would have any work that costs thousands of dollars done on my property without getting estimates from a few different sources. That doesn't mean craigslist handymen, that means from licensed and certified professionals. Everyone on this site knows that there are some unsavory contractors that literally charge double or even triple the going rates to gullible people.