PM and responsibility

[Fester]

Hi all. One of my properties here in Adelaide, the PM constantly phones me with small issues. As an example, the battery in the smoke alarm has gone dead or, the other day, the lounge room air conditioning vent has popped down a bit or, a door handle has come loose. Now I appreciated her phoning me with major issues but as I said to her, I pay you to manage, I have more important things to worry about in my life than smoke alarm batteries! This particular property, the tenant keeps it absolutely immaculate, so I want to attend to any little things that concern her. BUT, I want the PM to attend to them, not me! Other than changing PM I am at a loss to convince her to stop phoning me with minor issues and find some local handyman to attend to them! Anyone had a similar experience and how did they resolve it?

Cheers, Fester

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

A good PM should know what sort of repairs are your responsibility and what is the responsibility of the tenant. Changing the smoke alarm battery and tightening a few screws is usually the responsibility of the tenant and the PM should tell them that if the tenant enquires about it.

Assuming the PM does know the difference, you could give them permission to simply carry out repairs at their discression if they're under a given dollar amount. The problem here is that you might start getting a lot of small bills when a handyman goes there 3 times in one month, rather than addressing several problems in a single visit costing you less overall.

Unfortunatly, the level of maintenance usually comes down to the tenant. If a tenant is good with a screwdriver, you'll probably never hear about loose screws and leaky taps. If they're not, they might expect you to fix every little problem that occurs. I've got one tenant who I've had to change light bulbs for!

The good news is that you can use minor repairs as an excuse to do an impromtu inspection. You could also suggest that you do a schedule for minor repairs - perhaps once every six months. If the tenant wants loose screws tightened more often than that, they can organise repair and payment for themselves.

Mostly, it sounds like you need a better trained property manager...

 

[Aceyducey]

Fester,

As PT_Bear suggests, why not give her a set budget limit on repairs & maintenance. She's not to call you unless the spend is over a certain amount.

Remember - YOU are in control of the relationship with the PM. Train your PM to manage in the way you wish. If they are untrainable, change PMs.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

 

[stirling]

PT Bear

So how many PM's does it take to change a light bulb?

Stirling

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

PT Bear

So how many PM's does it take to change a light bulb?

Stirling

None, I do it. But I also wait until there's a few other repairs required...

 

[geoffw]

I set a limit- but I also request that if repairs have gone through, the I get an email.

They know not to call me at work unless it's really urgent- requests for bigger items are also done by email.

 

[Fester]

This particular PM, she is sort of an old fashioned type. She came with the property! When I purchased it she was already the PM. So I stuck with her. She has a $200 limit already, but she still feels she needs to phone me with every little issue (and she does phone me at work Geoff)! She is good at her job, so I don't want to offend her. But I will take your comments to heart. Thanks guys.

 

[stargazer]

Hi Fester

I authorise any repairs up to a limit but i do want to know also to avoid the silly things eg. screw loose in door handle. charge $80. as it happend to a friend of mine.

So an email is fairly easy i find to be on top of things and no surprises.

regards
BC

 

[Corsa]

This particular PM, she is sort of an old fashioned type. She came with the property! When I purchased it she was already the PM. So I stuck with her. She has a $200 limit already, but she still feels she needs to phone me with every little issue (and she does phone me at work Geoff)! She is good at her job, so I don't want to offend her. But I will take your comments to heart. Thanks guys.

Hi Fester

That is very nice of you, thinking of your agents feelings and not wanting to offend her! In this case, it will probably be okay for you to emphathise to her the need to only alert you for urgent issues (give examples) and the rest can wait till a monthly statement etc. I give one of my properties a delegation of $100 but the rest I want to hear about the details, usually it takes a couple of minutes to take the call so it doesnt impede to much.

I agree with Acey's call, train your PM to work for you the way you want them to work. If they wont change then change PM's.

I had to take a hard line with some maintance issues I was experiencing recently with one new property, I was getting caught up in all sorts of issues, send me an email if you are interested in getting the email I sent to the PM as an eg.

Good luck Fester

Kind regards

Corsa

 

[ggumpshots]

Well you could train her
tell her the same thing over and over............Ms PM its your call
eventually the mesage will get through as long as you dont give her the answer she is looking for.

Also dont reply to her calls / tell her only to ring at a certain time when you have the fax machine on.

Alternatively tell her for jobs under 200 dollars she has to speak to you in person but only on sundays before 7am.
Write a clause into a new agrement fining her 50 dollars evrytime she rings on amounts under 200 dollars

Personally with the irresponsible PM I have come across I would thank my lucky stars but still train her.
Finally give her the sack , once you have found a poor PM you can always go back to her cant you?

Threaten to cancel the agrement next time she annoys you ,
give the 1month or 3 moth notice and then change your mind at the las minute or follow through depending on how many more times she rings.

 

[crest133]

Sounds like you have a very attentive PM who has the makings of a useful PM, provided you can give her a clearer picture of handling issues for you. You should not be making the small decisions for her, she is paid to do that. PM has to make regular choices about spending OPM, in this case yours. She can spare you much expense if you cultivate her. Suggestion - use handyman for small jobs and the very next time he visits the property, get him to renew every tap washer in the house while he's there, saves a special callout later for one 20 cent washer. Provide spare light bulbs telling the tenant to change bulbs themselves. Use this method to avoid any recurring problems where predictable, thereby eliminating repeated callout fees or minimum visit fees.
Hopefully the PM can take action and full responsibility for small issues, otherwise, it gets scary - you then have someone looking after a big responsibility (your property) who can't take small responsibilities !! ? What's wrong with this picture ? If that situation continues, then it's then time to find a new PM.
cheers
crest133

 

[Kevin Hockey]

Usually the complaint about PM's is the other way, no contact. I'm not convinced that it is the tenants responsibility to change batteries however the other matters would appear insignificant.

The issue I would suggest is the higher emphasis on us agents now to cover our backsides on EVERYTHING. Litigation is becoming a major focus and a very costly exercise. An agency which has been stung once may then go overboard in an effort to protect themselves in future. This may not be the case on this occasion, the PM may just be anal and thorough to the point of over indulgence. However, it doesn't surprise me to hear this occurrs. I certainly wouldn't change agents over this, better too much than none at all, but just see if you can arrange an education process with them as to when you need to be contacted and when to make their own judgement call.

Kev

www.nundahrealestate.com.au

 

[Jacque]

Sounds like you have a very attentive PM who has the makings of a useful PM, provided you can give her a clearer picture of handling issues for you. You should not be making the small decisions for her, she is paid to do that. PM has to make regular choices about spending OPM, in this case yours. She can spare you much expense if you cultivate her. Suggestion - use handyman for small jobs and the very next time he visits the property, get him to renew every tap washer in the house while he's there, saves a special callout later for one 20 cent washer. Provide spare light bulbs telling the tenant to change bulbs themselves. Use this method to avoid any recurring problems where predictable, thereby eliminating repeated callout fees or minimum visit fees.
Hopefully the PM can take action and full responsibility for small issues, otherwise, it gets scary - you then have someone looking after a big responsibility (your property) who can't take small responsibilities !! ? What's wrong with this picture ? If that situation continues, then it's then time to find a new PM.
cheers
crest133

Agree with Crest here, in that you can cultivate her.
However, count yourself lucky in one way that your PM actually contacts you, even for minor repairs. There are many disgruntled landlords who simply don't hear about that $80 fee to replace a screw or two until its on the next statement.
Personally, I prefer my PM's to call me about any repair, but that's just me. I'm anal and like to retain that element of control
I actually have written across a couple of my MA's NO UNAUTHORISED REPAIRS, no matter what the cost. I've been caught out before and prefer it not to happen again. As long as the PM can supply with me with a general quote over the phone and I authorise it (or decide not to) then its all over quickly.
As for contacting you, why not simply let her know that, unless its an emergency (flooding, plumbing, power blackout etc) could she leave a message on your home answering machine?
Happy cultivating

 

[Jimmyjamjars]

Another viewpoint is that I don't know where things would stand legally if there was a tragedy resulting from a fire where the smoke alarms didn't go off due to there being no batteries in them etc. Would get sticky with the lawyers i'd imagine. I fitted mains powered smoke alarms in my IP's with a 9 volt battery backup. They are wired in with the lighting circuit so tenants can't turn them off if they've burnt the toast.

 

[miket]

Them PM's

I just sacked 2 PM's last week due to a combination of reasons some we've seen time and again on this forum. One didn't object to instant dismissal and the other wanted to hold us to a 90 day notice. Yeh right, I told them 30 days. I'm the property owner and figured it was up to me when I wanted to dismiss them. So 30 days it is.

Tenants are good and always paying on time. properties well maintained and virtually no maintenance issues. Also we have Landlord Insurance.

MikeT

 

[duncan_m]

I just sacked 2 PM's last week due to a combination of reasons some we've seen time and again on this forum. One didn't object to instant dismissal and the other wanted to hold us to a 90 day notice. Yeh right, I told them 30 days. I'm the property owner and figured it was up to me when I wanted to dismiss them. So 30 days it is.

Tenants are good and always paying on time. properties well maintained and virtually no maintenance issues. Also we have Landlord Insurance.

MikeT

Mike,

Are you going to self manage now?

After a string of incompetent PM's I gave up and now self manage, I havent looked back. Still waiting for the mythical 2am phone call about the broken toilet to transpire.

 

[Garry K]

I'm very happy to let my PM's deal with tennants complaints and put up the rent.
Just yesterday, PM phoned me, as amongst other things, tenant had written complaining that a water mark on a ceiling, after heavy rain, was affecting their quality of life, and that the (new) kitchen cupboard doors were out of alignment.

Same tenant is often late with rent, resulting in notices lodged with tribunal.

However, because they are so fastidious, the home is extremely well looked after. But they are just a bit of a pain in the .......

GarryK

 

[Kevin Hockey]

My PM told me today of a new management we have just listed. Owner had been privately looking after it and had it rented at 205pw. We have other properties very similar rented for 240-250 pw and believe theirs should be 240-245pw. They simply hadn't kept up with the market, understandably because an owner doesn't deal in enough of the market place to know.

To manage yourself is to lose money and risk being sued. Lawyers love self managed properties. If you don't believe me ring Jo Allen from Terri Scheer insurance.

Kev

ww.nundahrealestate.com.au

 

[duncan_m]

My PM told me today of a new management we have just listed. Owner had been privately looking after it and had it rented at 205pw. We have other properties very similar rented for 240-250 pw and believe theirs should be 240-245pw. They simply hadn't kept up with the market, understandably because an owner doesn't deal in enough of the market place to know.

To manage yourself is to lose money and risk being sued. Lawyers love self managed properties. If you don't believe me ring Jo Allen from Terri Scheer insurance.

Kev

ww.nundahrealestate.com.au

Kevin,

This is called a Deductive Fallacy.

You've provided one example of a Self Managing Landlord who didnt know the Market Rent and deduced that all Self Managing Landlords therefore dont know the market rents.

I read the Saturday Advertiser and check all suburbs in which I own Properties to check both vacancy levels and market rents. Anyone who self manages should do the same..

The last property I bought, a Dual Occupancy in Woodcroft was at LEAST $20pw under market rent. It was professionally managed by Elders in SA. A Deductive Fallacy at this point would be therefore to assume that all professionally managed properties are being let for under the Market Rent.

As for the increase in risk of being sued.. you'd need to back this up with cases and not some vague reference to an insurance broker who can attest to it.

For a common list of Fallacy types can I recommend you visit and read:

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/index.html#index

It will help you construct a logical argument.

 

[geoffw]

To manage yourself is to lose money

Hehe

The times when I can't manage myself is when I lose money- usually after a few drinks.

Now managing my properties by myself is another proposition