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.

[Lynn McGeein]

Jim, Just wanted to add that no matter what the letter from their lawyer said about ending November 1, I'd read your contract with them as there is probably a clause that states that unless you give a formal written notice 90 days or so in advance, you're on the hook for another whole year, so I'd make sure you follow your contract explicitly about ending their services even though common sense says you already fired them, or you might be getting another letter from their lawyer saying you're still obligated after November if you failed to give the proper notice exactly as required in the contract. You probably already did, but just pointing it out in case you haven't.