Property Manager, issues with make ready repairs

[Jerry Miller]

Hi,

I purchased a house recently and my property manager did make-ready repairs in it. Nothing serious (not a fully-fledged rehab). There are a couple of issues with it, though, and I want to understand how you would react in my situation.

Issue #1: the sump pump installation. They recommended installing a sump pump in the property and I agreed. We did this work in my other house for about $500 and I assumed it is going to cost the same in the new house. Yesterday, they sent me an invoice with the price of installation $2,800, almost 6 times more of what I assumed. Now, granted, I did tell them to go ahead with it and it's partly my fault that I haven't asked them for the price beforehand. But I expected them to communicate this price to me prior to starting working on this. If they did, I'd never have approved this expense. The PM says she did communicate the price to me (she did not), and the work is already done, they used a 3rd party contractor for that. How would you react? What would you recommend?

Issue #2: fridge. There is a brand new fridge for the price of $1,200 in this house. On the photos, there's clearly a dent at the lower part of it. Not a huge one but visible, maybe several inches across and a couple inches deep. I told the PM about this, she said she'd take a look but didn't come back to me on this one yet (it was more than a week ago). What would you recommend? Is it reasonable to expect to replace the fridge or ask for a discount? I don't want to sound cheap but this is a new appliance and I'd like it to be in a good condition.

Thanks everyone, this is my first post on BP, hopefully I chose the right forum.

Jerry

[Brie Schmidt]

Originally posted by @Jerry Miller:

Hi,

I purchased a house recently and my property manager did make-ready repairs in it. Nothing serious (not a fully-fledged rehab). There are a couple of issues with it, though, and I want to understand how you would react in my situation.

Issue #1: the sump pump installation. They recommended installing a sump pump in the property and I agreed. We did this work in my other house for about $500 and I assumed it is going to cost the same in the new house. Yesterday, they sent me an invoice with the price of installation $2,800, almost 6 times more of what I assumed. Now, granted, I did tell them to go ahead with it and it's partly my fault that I haven't asked them for the price beforehand. But I expected them to communicate this price to me prior to starting working on this. If they did, I'd never have approved this expense. The PM says she did communicate the price to me (she did not), and the work is already done, they used a 3rd party contractor for that. How would you react? What would you recommend?

Issue #2: fridge. There is a brand new fridge for the price of $1,200 in this house. On the photos, there's clearly a dent at the lower part of it. Not a huge one but visible, maybe several inches across and a couple inches deep. I told the PM about this, she said she'd take a look but didn't come back to me on this one yet (it was more than a week ago). What would you recommend? Is it reasonable to expect to replace the fridge or ask for a discount? I don't want to sound cheap but this is a new appliance and I'd like it to be in a good condition.

Thanks everyone, this is my first post on BP, hopefully I chose the right forum.

Jerry

 There is no way you did a sump pump installation for $500 on your previous house.  You may have replaced an existing sump pump - but to install one it requires adding drain tile and $2800 is a really good price IMO.  That is on you.  

$1200 for a fridge is expensive.  A standard top freezer SS one is $700 so you must have gotten a larger higher end one you would find in a personal residence.  I would be pushing back about the dent unless it was sold to you at a discount because of the dent and would retail for a few hundred dollars more.