Help! Property Manager out of Control!

[Matthew Spano]

Well, he's fired now, but I'm still trying to clean up his mess.
In a matter of just 2 weeks on the job some issues arose and I'm not entirely sure what's legal or how to handle the situation.

The hired Property Manager (he's not a licensed Property Manger, nor does he have any form or Real Estate License, he admits). Yet he claims to be a property manager; so I hired him because he claims to have a lot of experience with managing properties. I'm just taking his word at the time because I'm in a situation where my previous property manager quit so I need to get someone else to manage my properties ASAP (as I am an out of state owner).

This new property manager, we'll call him Bob (fictional name). I have 4 properties that I turned over to Bob to manage. throughout this term (2 weeks, from hired to fired), Bob was working on renting out one of my properties on Diploma Ave. (I was unaware of this at the time). He was actually working out 2 different deals to lease out 2 of my properties; one on Diploma Ave. and the other on Rock St.

I was unaware of either of these tenant screenings (if they took place) or lease signings or anything, nor have I yet to see any signed lease.

I get a call later from the previous owner of the house on Rock St. asking me if I know of a Bob Smith (PM) or a Jane (Potential Tenant). I said yes I know Bob.. so this is how I got Jane's number.

I call Jane and ask her what's going on with the property at Rock St. and Bob?

Jane asks me, "Who are you?" I tell her, "I am the owner."
Jane says, "oh, really, I thought Bob was the owner?"
I said, "No, why would you think that?"
She says, "Because Bob told me he was the owner, and I thought this was a scam so I began doing some research and found this phone number in the shed."

Mind you I had no idea that this entire transaction had taken place until I spoke with Jane at that moment.

The property at Rock St. isn't exactly rent ready; The Property manager knew this, and brought it to my attention and sent me estimates of repair so I had been shopping around for bids to get the place fixed up as I normally do.

The details of the transaction with Jane and Bob have now come to my attention via Jane (not Bob who should have informed me long before any of this had taken affect).

Bob claims that a lease was signed or agreed upon (at least verbally) for a discounted rent amount under the understanding that Jane would do some or all of the repairs. Bob had collected $500 from Jane that day, I've yet to see any lease agreement or an application or any funds whatsoever from Bob (even after having fired him and to this day writing in this forum - which is just a few days after having fired him, so this is all recent).

Jane is still wondering where her $500 is. She has been wanting a refund from Day 1 (or maybe Day 2). Jane says that she never signed a lease. Bob claims that she did. I have not seen any Lease.

That's issue #1.

We're still discussing the same property manager in the same period of time (2 weeks).

He had also been working on renting out the property on Diploma Ave. (again without my knowledge any of this was taking place. You would think that I'd get a call that he has a potential applicant or he had a completed application for a tenant that he has already screened). No I didn't get any notification this was going on. I cannot even confirm that the tenant was screened and at this point it's difficult to believe anything that Bob says after having already lied to Jane and admitting it to me.

Bob informed me that Diploma Ave. needed some repairs, so he sent me some estimates that I thought were a bit overpriced. So I decided to make some phone calls to get estimates on the repairs and I find a guy that can do the repairs for over $1000 cheaper than Bob's estimate and I agree to have this maintenance man John do the repairs because it's a lot cheaper than Bob's estimate.

Meanwhile, without the property owner's consent or even letting the property manager aware (because later he admits that it's a surprise) Bob decides to rent out Diploma Ave. to another tenant. Bob decides that there are some repairs that need to be done and assumes that the owner has no intention of fixing these things (he even admits that he made that assumption). So Bob decides that he'll just work out a deal with the tenant to give him a $200 discount on the rent each month for a 6-month lease provided that the tenant does some work on the house. (Again details of this agreement are vague) as I was unaware that this deal was even taking place at the time, I didn't find out until my maintenance guy John was a bit curious as to why there were people living in the property when I mentioned to him that it was vacant.

So this is the story, names and addresses are fictional but everything else is fact. This issue has just recently arose.

I'm not entirely sure how to deal with the issue nor am I sure what is legal and what is not. I spoke to a paralegal and she said that this guy Bob has committed fraud and needs to be locked away and that I need to call the police and file a report immediately.

I did call multiple police stations and they all say that it's a civil suit and that I need to handle it in civil court.

What do you think?
What would you do?
What do you know is legal or not legal in this matter?