All Forum Posts by: Art Maydan

I had to give 30 days' notice per our management agreement to a client I have 13 units with on Friday after having to hang up the phone on him Thursday afternoon and telling him if he ever speaks to me that way, it will be our last conversation. Well he did it again the next day, so I blocked his number. He's been bombarding me with emails with everyone he can think of CC'd all day saying how he's going to sue me for everything under the sun and accusing me of all kinds of made up nonsense. I have actual work to do and don't need 30 days of this.

He never paid me the expense deposit in my management agreement and I never pushed on it because I'm always holding enough of his rent at any given time for it not to matter. I did hold onto $2,500 of his that was going to be a cash-for-keys deal that fell through and he acknowledged this. That's still $1,300 short though. I told him he has 24 hours to send me the remainder as I'm not floating a dollar for him given the state of the relationship. He accused me of stealing and said he needs proof that he did not pay the deposit. That's not how proof works.

Am I legally in the right to cancel the contract for breach of contract in a day as soon as I get this last lease-up fee if he doesn't pay the deposit?

This is really disappointing. I'm his 4th PM in 3 years and they all fired him. I knew this would be a project and so did he. I took on 4 buildings - 2 of which were highly distressed. They are all doing so much better than they were. Rents went up on all renewals. All new tenants placed have worked out great. 2 of the properties are in the hood and had tenants who weren't paying. He insisted on micromanaging them and communicating with them himself, put them on "payment plans" that resulted in them getting even further behind, ignored my suggestions to serve 5-days, then looked at his account one day and realized just how far behind they were and that they would need to be evicted (we've already been through one - a few of them I was able to get on track), and blew up blaming everyone but himself. I won't be another grown man's emotional punching bag for any amount of money. The kicker is he now realizes he's out of options and is emailing me that he's going to "win be back" and "convince me to stay" like this is some high school romance. It's disappointing because we've put a lot of work into these buildings and we were so close to the finish line of them being stabilized and would have been there already if he wasn't such a meddler.

I've watched this guy use the same tactic of trying to threaten and intimidate delinquent and outgoing tenants with zero success and he never follows through. This guy is a kidney surgeon. I have reams of texts and emails of him saying wildly inappropriate and racist ****. Part of me just doesn't want to deal with him anymore. He's bad for my blood pressure. I've never lost sleep over a client before and the fact that I have now makes me mad. And the other part of me just wants to leave him hanging as thoroughly as possible. I am very much not a forgive and forget kind of guy and I like that about myself.

Last 2 paragraphs are just a vent. Question is in bold. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

And yes I'm asking lawyers too.

A lot of you guys are either missing the point or maybe just work with a very different demographic than I typically work with. I manage primarily on the South Side of Chicago. This kid is looking to rent a $1,500 unit in a small multi, not a condo in a building with on-site management. Played this whole 'I'm just a laid-back guy looking for a place to rest my head while I teach these kids history' on some Coach Carter ****. He's requesting a radon test before moving in. He's gonna be quoting the lease to me. He's gonna be sending me pictures of drywall seams asking why the house is falling apart. He's gonna be complaining about how the lawn and snow are done. He's gonna be complaining about pigeon **** on the deck. He's gonna be complaining about noise from his neighbors who are just walking around. It's not about the radon.

I'm not a slumlord. This is a nice building where everything works properly and the exterior is well taken care of. I take care of maintenance requests in a timely and friendly manner. I'm responsive. I'm reasonably accommodating. I've managed probably a couple thousand tenants over the past 8 years and I know how different people can be and how to be with different people. A radon test was done when we bought the building. I've never once had a tenant ask for a radon test before.

My question was, 'Can I legally get out of this?' Looks like the answer is no. I'll just make clear to him I won't be accommodating requests I perceive to be unreasonable and that if he's looking for more of a hand-holey type of experience, he should look into a building with a doorman up North. I'll be happy to send him him his money back. If he does move in and give me a headache, I 100% won't renew him.

I was fired up last night and this was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Slept on it and definitely won't try to cancel his lease. He might be annoying, but he 100% is not the type to destroy my unit or skip out on rent. So my worst case here is a month of vacancy. Which I'll take over a lawsuit I suppose.

 The fact he asked the question tells me all I need to know already. I don't want him in my building.

@John Warren

Would appreciate your input, John.

Had a tenant sign the lease and send the move-in fee and 1st month's rent then start asking a bunch of super high-maintenance questions. My favorite is, "Do you have a radon test for me? No worries if not. I can get my own." So he intends to move in, run a $15 Home Depot radon test, and move out if he gets a false positive or reads the test wrong or whatever. Regardless, it speaks to him being a high maintenance person I don't want to rent to. I cancelled a lease once before move-in when it became clear the lady was going to AirBnB it. Just sent her back her money with an email saying her lease is cancelled due to an obvious impending lease violation she revealed in her communication. What's the legality of doing the same here?

I know the city does test calls to landlords and PMs asking if they take Section 8 and you've gotta say the right thing. I've been getting lots of leads from South American refugees asking if we work with the Catholic Charities Program and a few others. They offer to pay 3-6 months of rent for someone with presumably no credit history and no way of paying the rent after that time elapses. I've gotten a couple of calls now from ladies saying they are calling from the Catholic Charities asking about our apartments. Are there reps over there looking for housing for these people? Or is this the government trying to catch you on discrimination based on source of income? Assuming someone under one of these programs did qualify on credit, are we allowed to deny them because the income is temporary? If someone applied and qualified, but told me he's going to get fired in two months, would I be allowed to deny him? Same thing, right?

 Thanks! I've PM'd both of them. Much appreciated.

 @Michael Smythe Thanks, Michael. Are you in Chicago? How do you set this up with the city and the client? I just need to be able to pay the bill from our bank account and have the bills come to our email. When I go to set up an account with the city, it says that account number is already in use. The city reps have told me like 6 different things now.

Hi Everyone,

I'm a property manager in Chicago. Our owners have always paid their own utilities, but I've decided to start offering to pay utilities for them. I'm trialing this out with one client. Creating a business account with ComEd and Peoples Gas and transferring the bill into our name was easy. Like always, dealing with the city is proving to be more difficult.

To create a new account (business or otherwise), you need an account number. The account number for my trial building is already under the current owner's LLC. I've called a few times. A few reps have told me to have the owner cancel their account (Does this mean pay off the bill and call to cancel? I'm concerned about an interruption in service) and then to make an account in my business name under that account number. And that I will be able to add other account numbers to the same account later.

Another few reps told me that I need a letter of authorization from the owners on file which could take a month authorizing me to make changes to the account.

And another told me the bill has to be in the owner's name. But I have a PM buddy who manages tons of property who says they pay all their owners' water bills. So that can't be true. But he can't help me with details as he's past the "do everything yourself" stage of the business and doesn't remember.

Much appreciated,
Artem

 Got it. Sounds like it's not worth it. Thanks, Frank.