Can PM refuse to use Home Warranty or give me my tenant's info?

[Dean Attali]

I bought a unit less than a year ago, and the water heater in it was less than a year old at the time (it's about 1.5 years old now).

The heater is leaking. Since I have the home warranty, I asked my PM to get this done with them, but my PM told me they refuse to work with home warranty, claiming they will just be a huge headache. I said fine, I'll deal with it myself then - I just need the tenant's phone number so that the home warranty company will be able to schedule with them.

My PM is refusing to give me the tenant's number, claiming that when the home warranty people won't show up it'll be a bad reflection on them and they'll only give me the tenant's number if at that moment our contract is ending and I take on full PM duties.

We agree that I'll find a new PM within 30 days to replace them, but until then I want to deal with the water heater - I want my tenant's number so I can deal with this. But they're refusing to give me the tenant info. They say that our contact specifies that all maintenance is handled by them exclusively, and if I want to go through home warranty I'm breaking the contract.

I don't want to leave the tenant in the dark, but I don't want to end the contract immediately (I'll find a PM as soon as I can). Are they allowed to withhold the tenant information from me? Can they really claim I'm breaking the contract because I want to use the home warranty instead of buying a new water heater?

[Theresa Harris]

You said you're finding a new PM, so you will need to let the tenant know anyhow.  contact the tenant-can you send them a letter?  

It is your house and you want to do a repair before it causes more damage, I don't understand why the PM won't let you use the warranty.