All Forum Posts by: Sue Vivilacqua

Hi Kelsey. I messaged you back 👍

Here is an update. I was able to contact and speak with the broker she works under and told him what’s going on and how long it’s taking to get my money back.  I sent him the emails I had sent the property manager too. He was very nice and promised he would contact Rebecca immediately. I did tell him she’s got till Friday or I’m filing complaints with all the agencies you all told me about.He told me he was going to tell her if she didn’t get this handled asap he was going to tell her he would no longer be her broker.  Lo and behold she finally responds. We went back and forth all week hashing out what was owed to me. There were a lot of inaccuracies in her accounting records.…some in her favor and some in mine. She did try to argue about a $300 pet deposit. She said pet deposits do not and never have been refunded, it is a fee they keep. I reviewed the agreement we signed with her and there is nothing in it about pet deposits or fees and it’s not listed as a fee they keep.  Also the tenant agreement only states it is a pet deposit, not a pet fee or pet rent and does not say that it’s non-refundable. She is crediting that back to me, as I’ve already paid the new homeowner/landlord this money. She has also credited me back the other deposits in full and refunded me some overcharges I found. On one deposit she tried to argue that she only received $750 from my prior management company but it was $900. She said she’d give me the $150 difference to get this closed, like she was doing me a favor. I have the original lease she was given when she took over and it states the deposit was $900. She renewed the lease and listed the deposit as already paid. Then she renewed it again a year later and wrote $750 was the deposit. So she tries to tell me the deposit was $750 not $900. Last week she asks me if I have a record of what the deposit was that the previous management company sent her 3 years ago. REALL? I got records from the previous management company that shows they gave her $900. I was also charged $975 twice in 3 months for a new tenant lease fee, should only have been one charge. Her and her staffs record keeping is terrible.  So we’ve come to an agreement on what’s owed and she sent me a message last night that she’s processed the payment. So I should see it hit my bank account on Wednesday. I’ll keep you posted. Thank you all for your advice and information. It was invaluable. Without that I think I’d still be waiting for her to respond to my emails. 

In Toledo the owner of the property is ultimately responsible for the water bill. The tenant gets listed at the renter on the water bill and is supposed to pay it, it’s in the lease agreement they pay utilities. But Toledo will not shut off water and the bills grow. If a tenant gets behind the property manager is supposed to pay the water out of the rent payments first then apply what’s left to water. Apparently my property manager was collecting payments and paying the water bill on one…but the bill was so big I ended up having to pay it out of escrow. The other property was vacant for awhile during repairs so I owed money…which my property manager charged me two bills for but she never forwarded it to the water company, this was in 2022, then tenants moved in and owed more. So I ended up having to pay $1900 out of escrow on this house. 

I gave her till October 27th. She sent me a FB message last night that she will review everything this morning. I’ve left two messages with her broker, and tried to email from emails I find on the internet but they are coming back undeliverable. Finally found him on FB and sent him a message. 

 Hi Caroline

Regarding the tenant deposits and water bills…I sold directly to another investor without a selling realtor. The title company paid the new owner the tenant deposits out of my escrow funds therefore my property manager should be refunding me the deposits in full. Also the title company said I had to pay all the water bills on all four houses for bills thru the close of escrow date. Money was taken from my escrow funds to do this. During escrow is when I found out all four property's were very behind in water bills. I ended up having over $4K paid out of my escrow funds to pay water bills on 3 of the rentals. This is when the water company sent me ledgers that shows the funds my property manager deducted from my rents to pay water bills was never paid to the water department on one house. I was charged over $1200 in 2022 by the property manager. By close of escrow $1900 was due. On another house $2000 was due and several hundreds more on another house. Unfortunately I was forced by the title company to pay these out of my escrow funds and I will never be able to collect from the tenants. 

I have called twice and emailed Rebecca’s real estate broker. Hopefully I get some response soon! 

Thanks everyone I really appreciate all your advice and I am going to do these things. I’ve already reached out to her broker and an attorney… will be filing a complaint with the Ohio Real Estate Commision as well. 

Thanks Caroline. She took over management of our properties Nov 2020. She owes me over $11K so it’s more than I can file for in small claims.  I have proof of everything. I will call Matt first, thank you for that info I was having a hard time finding her broker information. 

Thank you 

Thank you 

I like that Mike 😉  I did just send her a letter with a detailed list and breakdown and proof of documents about what she owes me. She has till Friday. After that I’ll send a letter like yours ! And I will by you a margarita and a taco…or two or three. But you gotta come to San Felipe (just south if the border) to come and get it 😂

This is her page here 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/rebeccac11