Property Manager Charged Illegtimate Fees

[Jason Leigh]

Hi everyone

We're out of state investors and handed over a rental property to a local Property Manager.  After six months on the market, we received no commucation nor any potential tenant inquiries which we found to be extremely strange given the good shape of the house and pricing.

At last we decided to take the property back.  Now we're getting a bill for few thousand dollars for so called services and maintenances performed.  We never approved these repairs as we were never told ahead of time.  Some bills for utilities were verified but others have no accompanying receipts / invoices and even double charged.  This had to be one of the most incompetent PM we've worked with.

So for those experienced members here, is there any recourse we have with this company in regards to some of these illegimate charges and fees.  Would there be anything we can do other than seek legal counsel?

Thank you for any suggestions and advice.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Jason Leigh:

Here's what I would do.

Write a very short, professional letter to the property manager explaining that they failed to communicate with you about anything, particularly the "services and maintenance" that was never communicated to you or approved by you. Show them how much you already lost due to their incompetent management and sitting vacant for six months.

If they insist on pushing this, file a complaint with the state licensing board. That will probably put enough pressure on them to back off.

[Drew Sygit]

@Jason Leigh if you've already taken possession of the property away from them, what can they do to you about the unpaid bills?

Their choices are:
1) Take you to court, which if they didn't follow their own management contract, won't work out for them.
2) Try to put a lien on your property, which you could sue them for damages and attorney fees.

They sound very incompetent if they did work without your approval AND without upfront funds from you.

[Ryan Fox]

@Jason Leigh - Write them a letter explaining their shortcomings, as recommended above, but point out specifics in their management agreement that they did not comply with.  Were they supposed to provide you monthly statements and did not do so?  Are they seeking to charge you for items that would have required your approval in the first place?  Were they actually marketing the property through Zillow / Trulia, ect?  Good luck!