Tenant paid previous property manager

[Keaton M.]

I just bought a fourplex and we closed around the 20th of last month. I sent an introduction email and notice that online payments are changing. Now rents are due and the tenant said they paid the previous property manager before seeing my message and their payments were set up on automatic bill pay. 

My question is how do I recover the money from the other manager and what can I do to get them to hustle. I've already called and emailed, but havent gotten a response. It's also July 3rd so they'll probably drag their feet for the holiday weekend. I've also instructed the tenants to contact the manager as well. 

Thanks for any input.

[Chinmay J.]

Originally posted by @Keaton M.:

I just bought a fourplex and we closed around the 20th of last month. I sent an introduction email and notice that online payments are changing. Now rents are due and the tenant said they paid the previous property manager before seeing my message and their payments were set up on automatic bill pay. 

My question is how do I recover the money from the other manager and what can I do to get them to hustle. I've already called and emailed, but havent gotten a response. It's also July 3rd so they'll probably drag their feet for the holiday weekend. I've also instructed the tenants to contact the manager as well. 

Thanks for any input.

 Is this your first purchase?  Congrats if that's the case. 

What you need to do is have some patience and reach out to the old PM. If you are local you can even drive to their office.  Due to 4th of July weekend, I would wait until Monday. 

Going forward, you need to have in writing that any money that the old PM collects after the sale of the property will be diverted to you (new owner), and make it a part of the contract.  

If the tenant honestly paid, don't evict the poor tenant.. Sort it out.  Put yourself in his shoes, and imagine that if you had made an honest mistake, do you want to be treated like that..  Is there any receipt that the tenant can provide you as a proof of the payment?