Seeking advice for terminating a short term rental management contract

[John Cho]

Bought a house in Florida last sept to STR and signed a contract with a property management company. Company has consistently fallen short of performance, communication and their accounting is a mess leading to unexplained charges.

I sent notice that i want to terminate my contract early due to these issues and the company has balked threatening outlandish early termination fees totaling several thousand based on what they claim they spent time/leg work in helping me to acquire the house and lost management fees for a projected pro forma until the rest of the contract terms. Their pro forma is inflated so this all sounds bogus to me to compel me to stay. Contract also just states "early termination penalty" in the termination section but does not specify what they are telling me now.

I know a contract is a contract and should have vetted and scrutinized things more closely before signing but couldnt imagine how much of a disaster this would turn out. I know this will go probably need to settled in a legal venue but just wanted to get some advice in getting out this situation. I just want to terminate the contract so that i can get another prop management firm or self manage and pay some reasonable early termination penalty based on market norms.

[Kodi Maxey]

All property management contracts are different. Ours have a 30 day opt out clause. I would agree that an attorney would be the best resource for opting out of a contract. With STR, I would recommend signing a contract with an opt out clause or doing a shorter agreement. We sometimes do 6 month agreements. Most high performing companies don't mind doing a shorter contract because they know they will be able to perform and renew. STR contracts are completely different from residential contracts because it's such a performance based business.