Fraud or no?

[Shannon Reynolds]

My property in MD is turning over to a new tenant. My PM sent me a quote that gave me a small heart attack. Upon further inspection, I quickly recognized that the times they were allocating for various tasks were grossly overexaggerated. For instance, changing the battery in a garage remote and reprogramming it. That shouldn't take a professional longer than a couple minutes. They had 2 hours! When I confronted them, they defended their quote, stating that they go off the industry standard and a portion of the labor time is for "testing the system after repairs to ensure safety." To which my response was, "so 5 min to complete, 1 hour and 55 min to make sure the new battery doesn't explode in the remote and burn down the entire neighborhood?"

That was just one example of what I would consider to be fraud by grossly misrepresenting the time required to complete even the simplest tasks...like changing a couple light bulbs...30 min! 😂

Can someone shed some light on this matter? Isn't that some form of Consumer Fraud?

If so, I assume I am obligated to mitigate through my contract, but I declined to allow them to do the work anyway. For me, it's the principal of the matter. They admitted to charging the same for other turnovers, so if it is fraud, it seems like grounds for a Class Action lawsuit? If PMs in MD operate like they do in CO, they are required to keep all client records for 4 years. And the Real Estate Commission would have to investigate any written complaint. If they confirm the complaint, they would turn it over to an administrative judge for ruling. Then the Commission would act according to the ruling...but they can't assign punitive damages. So, who does...I've gone this far down the rabbit hole. I want to see the Queen! Lol.