Any success in suing a property manager?

[Michelle Martin]

I am an out of state investor, so I relied on my ex-property manager to do their job, however they were gross negligent. I was left with an excessive water bill ($10k) at my 4-unit property as they failed to fix a water leak, which I complained about once I noticed a spike in the water bill. Once my new management company took over, they inspected the property and noticed the ceiling of one of units was caving in due to a leak from the upper floor. The tenant said she had been complaining for months. The tenant from the unit with the leak supposedly moved out because the leak issue was not being fixed. I was told from the ex-PM that she moved because she bought a home.

The ex-PM lied about doing $6k of rehab work at my duplex. They even sent pictures, but it was not of my property, which I found out once I switched management companies. In fact, there was no work done. At this same property, there is a house sitter that had a lot of police activity (domestic violence, weapons discharged, etc). I was sent a citation for this, so I told the ex-PM to get rid of that house sitter. They insisted the house sitter was a good person and that it was the neighbor's house that had police activity. Well the house sitter is still there and refusing to leave, so now I have to evict him. We also verified that he is the subject listed on the police reports.

There is a long list of other issues. I'm at a $30k+ loss due to this property manager's negligence. I would like to sue and also report the owner (licensed broker) to the state (Wisconsin). Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Michelle Martin:

It's hard to find an attorney willing to work on smaller claims. I had an open-and-shut case against a CPA for $25,000 and couldn't find an attorney to touch it. They all said it was too small to bother with and I should try to reach a settlement, which I did.

The first thing I recommend is putting all this on paper. Write down a narrative of what happened and attach all supporting document. If you can get statements from contractors or tenants, add that to the pile.

Once you have your notes together, file a complaint with the state. In most cases, the state will quickly reach out to the broker and let them know a complaint was filed. That may trigger the property manager to reach out and negotiate a settlement because they don't want the state digging into their books. If you aren't able to settle, then press forward with the complaint and maybe you can get their business shut down before they do this to others.

As for suing, you'll have to discuss that with an attorney and see if it is worth the effort. You may consider taking them to small claims just to get your pound of flesh.