Property Manager fired - Is now asking for payment. What to do?

[Christine G.]

Hello, a few months ago I hired a property manager whom I thought would do a good job managing y property that I have in another state (Massachusetts).

i signed the contract and it had been 3 months and the property was still not rented out. I ended up firing him for many reasons:

1. Awful communication. I had a hard time reaching out to him and he was slow to respond. Would take several days to over a week.

2. One "showing" in three months time

3. Did not list my property on any of the public markets like Zillow, Trulia or redfin ( only saw it on apartmentfinder and apartment.com 🤷‍♀️). Did not give me any sort of paperwork to fill out (1099 or a link to a owners portal of some sort).

4. Lied about communicating with my existing tenant (who is a friend). Never communicated or reached out to her when he said he did on numerous occasions. 

5. Never bothered to pick up the keys when she moved out for over a week even when I messaged him a few times to confirm. He said he would several times before move out date but never did.

so, I had to fire him because in today's market and especially in MA I would expect to be rented out in a few weeks but it's been 3 months. I also suggested lowering the price after a few weeks but again radio silence/poor communication.

now he has sent me a bill with a startup fee which was supposed to go to costs of any repairs and such (of which he did none because he didn't even go to the property to inspect or repair anything)...plus some marketing fees. Nearing $1000 for what I think is very subpar work on his end. I don't feel like he held his end of the contract. 

Anything I can do? He is threatening to send me to collections plus put a lien on my property. It's been a week of me trying to figure out how to handle this and discuss with my friend who is a lawyer. I feel like it was a waste of my time and money. Three months is a long time for a property to be vacant.