Do I have to pay property management company fees?

[Lauren M.]

I'm in the process of firing my management company. We purchased a duplex at the end of November and kept the existing management company in place. They communicated with us just enough for us to sign the management agreement, but have failed to answer emails, text and phone calls for more than a week and have not deposited any earned rent for this month into our account.

I was reading through the management agreement. This line has me worried: "If agreement is terminated by owner, owner agrees to pay The Rent Company any commissions or management fees that would have been earned under any existing lease agreements."

If I fire my management company, will I still have to pay their monthly fee until both leases expire? One expires January 31st, 2017 and the other expires May 31st, 2017. It seems unfair that they could make me pay for a service they've failed to provide, but at this point I don't trust that they won't try to pull something on us.