Property Management Expectations

[Wendy Black]

We have an IRA house (in an HOA area) with a backyard that faces a manmade lake. You can see through the fence. While the PM supposedly walks the property every 3 months, it's been us at various times who has discovered dogs not on the lease, an unkempt yard, and now lawn replaced with gravel without permission. We're paying for a service, and I don't feel it should be up to us to keep tabs on a tenant who--while he's been there for years--keeps crossing the line. On the other hand, we have no reason to believe this isn't happening between inspections. The PM is an hour away from the property; it's just a few miles from us. Is this dereliction of duty?

[Mike Bonadies]

@Wendy Black - I think that there aspects that @James Wise and @Peter Tverdov both mentioned that are true. One element to consider is what you or the property manager can feasibly enforce. To give an example, you can say "no smoking" in your lease in the state of New Jersey but you better believe no court will actively evict someone for smoking in a rentals. You more than likely will be able to get an amount out of the security deposit. So whats a pragmatic way to reduce your stress, allow your PM to execute, and for you to maintain your bottomline?

First - the gravel replacement. I'm not familiar with Arizona landlord-tenant law, but I would treat this as an unapproved addition at the end of the lease. Treat it as any other repair needed at the end of a lease. The damage is done. If they have no documentation of an approval and as long as you have this covered in your lease tell them they can either remedy the situation by returning the lawn to the former condition when they first moved in or the cost to return the lawn to its former state will be taken out of the security deposit.

Second - the pet. This one is a tougher one to enforce. You can take this one of two routes. The first is to retro charge the tenant for a pet for the duration of their lease -your ability to enforce this is largely based on the law of the area. If they do not pay then you do have ground for eviction. That said this might not be worth the headache or the dollars of the eviction/turnover. The second route is remedy the damage (if there is any) when the lease is over. If there is damage in the unit from the pet, document it and take it out of the security deposit.

Third - The PM. Without fully understanding contract or relationship you have with your PM, I'm going to assume they do full property management for you. If this is the case have the conversation with them about what you saw. Ask them how they would manage it. If you don't like their response then it might be time to consider moving on. If they have a solution that solves for it in a pragmatic way then it sounds like a communication expectation. Have the conversation around how frequent/transparent you want conversation. As Peter stated once a quarter external walks with bi-annual full inspections are the norm, that said as James stated even with inspections some of this is going to happen - that's the rental business. If you or your PM have a solution set up for the future then don't stress the problem and execute the solution when its needed.  

Best luck!