All Forum Posts by: Lance W.

@Michael Rogers

1. My mom "fired" the property manager via email.

2. According to the property management agreement, "If Owner terminates this Agreement within term, Owner shall pay Broker all fees which would be due both the present and future months by virtue of any unexpired rental agreement in effect at the time of termination. "

3. There are no details that outline when my mom is able to terminate the contract.

@Dennis Jayy

We have contacted the property manager. He just continues to commit fraud. He convinced the renter to pay cash for the last two months and is telling us that the renter hasn't paid. We also just found out that the property manager told her that she could get a discount if she paid rent early several months ago...He has no right to tell the tenant that she will get a discount if she pays early. The renter sent us a check and the property manager's signature agreeing to this arrangement. This is downright embezzlement.

@Account Closed

@Colleen F. @William Hochstedler @Account Closed

All-I wanted to follow up with you guys on the situation. My mom recently fired the property manager and cancelled the property management agreement. The property manager still has not sent any money to my mom. We contacted the tenant and requested that the rent be sent to my mom. Is it legal for my mom to do this?

However, the property manager continues to demand rent payment from the tenant. The property manager is threatening to ruin the tenant's credit since the contract is between the tenant and property manager. Now the tenant is getting a lawyer involved because she is unsure who to pay. Given that she is obligated to pay Frank but my mom fired Frank, who is she obligated to pay?

The tenant signed a lease on 10/7/14 for "12 months." On 10/7/14, she paid first and last month's rent. The first month's rent was for October 2014. Therefore, the last rent payment should be in August 2015 since the tenant paid first and last month's rent. Therefore, the tenant should not pay rent to the property manager for the month of September 2015. Is this correct?

Thanks,

Lance

@William Hochstedler I just left a message with the Tennessee Real Estate Commission Complaint Office. I will see what they have to say.

@Account Closed Thanks for the prompt response. This is going to get hairy.

@Account Closed I was looking at the details of the Tennessee Real Estate Commission Recovery Fund. It appears that funds will only be disbursed from this fund after I have been adjudged (awarded restitution by a court of law). It appears that if I file a complaint, the Tennessee Real Estate Commission cannot recover funds. Is this your understanding as well?

https://www.tn.gov/commerce/article/rec-real-estate-education-and-recovery-account

https://www.tn.gov/commerce/article/rec-file-a-complaint

@Colleen F.That's a good suggestion. Do you have any suggestion on how to get in touch with the tenant if the property manager refuses to give us the tenant's contact information or tenant lease and my mom lives in Hawaii?

@William Hochstedler Thanks for the clarification!

@William Hochstedler Thanks for the additional insight. After talking to my mom, we will likely file a complaint with the national association of realtors. Depending on how that turns out, our backup plan is legal action.

@Colleen F. The property management agreement specifies that if the owner terminates the agreement within the term, owner shall pay broker all fees which would be due both the present and future months until the end of the property management agreement. This clause does not specify situations that the owner may terminate the property management agreement.

@Nat C. Thanks for your advice. We will be selling the house because my mom is so frustrated with the situation.

@Michael Rogers Yes, we will definitely alerting the general public on this property manager's shady operations on Yelp and Google.

@Steve Babiak You bring up a good point. I did review the property management agreement and did not find  a sales clause that requires my mom to use this property manager to sell the property. The only "Sales" clause I saw was "If owner sells the property to the tenant, either during the term, or thereafter, not less than 4% of the sale price at closing."

@Colleen F.Yes, I would like to contact the tenant but the property manager refuses to give us the tenant's contact information or lease agreement. I understand that the property manager may not have placed a high quality tenant. My suspicion surrounds his avoidance in providing a lease agreement, justification for any/all expenses, and excessive expenses.

My logic that these expenses are excessive is because the "property condition report" suggested $5,575 in repairs/upgrades to restore the property to rentable condition. After making these repairs, the property manager has charged $5,709 additional of repairs over the last eight months (including the repairs per the property condition report).

@Dennis Jayy, @Stephen Akindona, @Kevin Knight, @Frank Jiang, @Mike D'Arrigo

First, I'd like to thank all of you for being soooooo helpful and reading through my lengthy post. You guys have provided thoughtful and useful information. We will be reaching out to several local real estate attorneys to see how to attack this issue. It's good to know that the realtors association has a potential recovery fund. To follow up on some of the questions asked.

1. According to the property manager's linkedin profile, he is a certified property manager with the national association of realtors and a certified residential special with the national association of realtors. In addition, according to this website, a license is required to be a property manager in Tennessee.

http://www.allpropertymanagement.com/propertylaw/property-management-law-in-tennessee.html

2. I am willing to provide the property manager's company in a private message but I'd rather not publish his name on the forum just in case this person is scouring these message boards (I know it is unlikely but I'm a little paranoid about the situation).