Castle property management customers

[Andrew Halbert]

Very simply I have a question and a concern regarding Castle. I don't know how else to get any kind of response. Castle is not responding to my calls, my emails, twitter messages etc..

1. Have you received payment for January's rent? On one of my units, my tenant paid castle on January 1st and I am yet to receive my deposit.  Castle seems to have gone MIA since announcing they are closing

2.  In October I paid castle to register my property with the city of Warren.  They(castle) deposited my check and yesterday I received a citation from the city of Warren notifying me that my property is out of compliance. Castle apparently never filed my paperwork with the city, yet they took my money to do so. 

At this point, I am concerned that I will not get January's rent nor the security deposit that my tenant gave castle upon move-in.  I have already instructed my tenants to not send castle another dime. Alternate rent collection is in place.  

What are my options at this point? Are these guys really going to hold out on people's money?  Not only am potentially out 1800 dollars for january's rent and security deposit, but now I have to go to court and more than likely pay some kind of fine.  Thankfully I have all emails saved and documented regarding the arrangement for Castle to register the property as a rental.  I feel kind of helpless right now.

[Greg Scott]

Andrew:

Sorry to hear about what you are going through.   I don't know Castle, but I've had a friend experience a similar situation with other property management company.

I'm glad to hear you have contacted your tenants.  The key is to stop the bleeding.  Getting future rent sent to you instead of Castle is the first step.   Pay attention to the expense side too.   If they have any utilities or other pass-through costs that could be attached to you, cut them off immediately.    Make sure bills are being sent to you.  The important thing is to not let the damage get any worse.

Once the dust settles, you can see if there is any value to be extracted from the rubble.   In the case of my friend, he took the property management company to court and won.  Unfortunately, instead of cash he got a judgment order.   That might become cash sometime in the future, but he hasn't collected anything yet.

Good luck!