Get some coffee. This is a huge post…
I’ve been in this business since Moses let me manage his condo on the Nile.
Your manager either has too much going on, is disorganized, or just incompetent.
To answer your question(s); Yes we want to know what it costs to fix the leak. As importantly, we want to know how come we weren’t informed of the leak before it became a catastrophe.
Depending on the answer, we either continue with that manager, or fire them.
This leak didn’t just happen yesterday…
And no, we don’t want to hear about the tenant’s violation of the lease terms.
That’s why we hire managers; to keep us out of the day to day operations.
Either way, failing to make it clear to the tenant what the rules are, and the consequences of breaking the rules; failing to make it costly and inconvenient to break the rules; failing to have the lease agreement on an iPad so any lease terms can be addressed in real time; and just failing to have a uniform lease agreement across all properties; all tells us that your manager is an unpredictable hack.
The issue “IS” about OUR failure to manage our manager, not just our manager’s failure to manage our tenants.
I realize you’re coming here for advice, because your manager can’t seem to handle a standard pet violation without involving you in the deal, much less address a roof leak, before it becomes a disaster.
So, you’re looking for answers to overcome your poor management approach.
Here’s the first part of the answer:
Management problems are ALWAYS a management failure.
Tenants don’t manage themselves. They lie. They cheat. They take advantage. They consume. That’s just the facts.
So… our job (responsibility) then, is to manage our manager, not manage the day-to-day operation, much less our lying, cheating, dishonest, advantage-taking, consuming tenants.
As far as the roof is concerned; this tells us that we were offering bargain rents, because tenants with bargain rents don’t call about repairs …until it’s too late.
This may be one reason we ended up spending a boatload of money after the last tenants moved out. Their rent was too low for them to risk telling us about anything, including a leak in the roof.
That’s another clue our manager was/is a lazy fathead.
Adding insult to injury, our manager failed to do a 3-day follow-up on the current tenant’s move-in inspection.
That was the time for the manager (and tenant) to verify, review, and approve the conditions of the house, and list any defects not seen/noticed/covered in the initial inspection, thus limiting everyone’s liability for future damages, and reducing disputes over future abuse and extraordinary wear and tear.
It was also a time to let the tenant ask about pets, and/or to review the lease terms regarding pets, care of the lawn, sprinkler timers, and what not.
Our manager did not do this. And now look.
The defensiveness of the management company seems strange.
Our experience has been that clients are ready to blame the manager for their hang nails, if not tenant’s damages and violations…
This manager must be either a relative, or a close friend, for us to jump to their defense so quickly.
The fact that our management company is opening a discussion as to whether to evict the tenant for violating the lease, or not, just screams ‘amateur.’
In the event of default, we give the tenant the option of complying, or moving. We don’t want to make that decision for him. Our first objective then is to salvage the situation, if at all possible.
Otherwise, the marketing money, the repair costs, and lost rents, all become that much more potential, unrecoverable overhead.
We want the tenant to live by the rules, take care of the house …and stay put.
Sometimes, it takes about three or fourth months to train a new tenant about how to handle himself. This is more the case with lower-end units, in our experience.
That all said, a good management company insists the tenant abide the terms of the lease; makes it painful not to comply; collects the rents on the due dates; monitors the condition of the property in such a way as to mitigate against catastrophic repairs.
DIY Remedy:
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Make sure that any violation of the lease agreement becomes an element of default.
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Notify the tenant of the default and the ability cure the default within 24 hours.
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With the default notice you post a 30-Day Notice To Vacate/Termination of Agreement Notice (which you cancel once the default has been cured, if it is cured). You’re not giving the tenant 30 days to cure the default. Your giving them 24 hours.
a) You charge $150 to cure any default. You’re not charging for the default. You’re charging to ‘cure’ the default. There’s a difference.
b) It’s best to provide an incentive to comply within 24 hours by waiving any penalties.
c) In the event they’re not going to cure the default, you’ve got the ability to enforce the ‘vacation’ notice.
Finally, if your manager doesn’t charge a default fee; doesn’t automatically post a conditional notice to vacate; doesn’t have a default clause in the agreement to cover violations of the lease terms; doesn’t have a copy of the lease on her iPad to reference the property she’s visiting (just in case the tenants want to have a discussion about their violation of terms); doesn’t exercise enough initiative to deal with a tenant in default, without calling you, much less do the obvious… you know you’ve got a crappy manager.
Forget second-guessing whether the tenant is dishonest, or not. They’re all dishonest. It’s up to your manager to require the tenant have something to lose if they don’t abide by the terms of the lease. Huge deposits keep everyone honest.
I’m betting your tenant only put up a small deposit, and only one of the tenant’s has any credit, and that’s probably marginal.
That’s a lot to post, and I hope it helps you manage your manager more effectively. :beer
