Tenant and Property Manager woes....Lesson learned

[Jim Murphy]

Last year I purchased a 3 family building my first multifamily , 2 2b/r units and 1 1b/r I rented the 2 2 b/r units no problem [after I Rehabbed all three. I had 2 great tenants, for some reason I was unable to rent the 1 b/r I was recomended to a property management company who told me that they had a waiting list of qualified tenants. In November they had the 1 b/r rented guy paid 1 months rent plus 1 and a half months security great I thought, now my contract required that the company got 10% management fee for all three units , again no problem ,Well Jan 15th was the last rent check I got from the 1 b/r unit and apparently the other two tenants were complaining to the management company about this tenant but never alerted me , The company began eviction procedures and after delay upon delay he left july 30th , 6 months with no rent from him plus I lost the other 2 tenants I advertised the apartments on my own and then recieved a letter from their lawyer telling me that I was under contract until November 1st and that any rents recieved would be subject to a 10% management fee. The cost of suing them is large compared to the amount lost .Anyway I have learned a very important lesson to really check my property managers out first . This happened in New York state where the rights of landlords fall into second place after the tenants. So it was expensive and stupid on my part I am leaving the units empty until November. Has anyone had similar experiences.