Terminating a PM?

Hi,

I'm wondering if I have warrent to terminate my current PM without giving notice. I've been with them a year now, and so far encountered these problems:

- Taking months to send out inspection reports and not telling me about maintenance requests that were outlined in them...thus tennant getting frustrated that nothing has been done to fix problems.

- Not sending out lease renewal to tennant because (and I quote) "Oh yeah its probably in that big pile of lease renewals on my desk that I havent got around to sending out yet" ...this was over a month after lease had expired.

- tennant consistently behind in rent, they usually catch up but now they're 15 days behind and wont answer PM's phone calls/emails about signing lease or paying rent.

- for about 6 months the PM was impossible to get a hold of, never returned my phone calls and took weeks to answer emails if she even replied at all.

- put my management fee up a considerable amount without telling me.

This is among many other things. There is a new PM on board who is quite good but the damage is already done and I dont like how the company operates in general.

I've had a look at our agreement and theres nothing in there besides having to give them 90 days notice. I want to kick tennants out and get rid of current PM. I've got three options that I can see:

1) Ask current PM to find new tennants and then give them their 90 days. However i don't really trust them to find me quality tennants and I know they take alot of short cuts and would prefer not to sign a new tennnat with them.

2) Give them their 90 days notice now and also advise that I need new tennants. They definately won't give a rats about me after I give them their notice so I dont see this option panning out well

3) Find a clause to be able to terminate contract and switch to another PM company straight away. A good friend of mine is a PM for a company that I know has good practices and will look after me. This is my best option but not sure if I am able to do it?

Sorry, long post. Very much appreciate any feedback :)

Thank you

:)
 
Hi,

I'm wondering if I have warrent to terminate my current PM without giving notice. I've been with them a year now, and so far encountered these problems:

- Taking months to send out inspection reports and not telling me about maintenance requests that were outlined in them...thus tennant getting frustrated that nothing has been done to fix problems.

- Not sending out lease renewal to tennant because (and I quote) "Oh yeah its probably in that big pile of lease renewals on my desk that I havent got around to sending out yet" ...this was over a month after lease had expired.

- tennant consistently behind in rent, they usually catch up but now they're 15 days behind and wont answer PM's phone calls/emails about signing lease or paying rent.

- for about 6 months the PM was impossible to get a hold of, never returned my phone calls and took weeks to answer emails if she even replied at all.

- put my management fee up a considerable amount without telling me.

This is among many other things. There is a new PM on board who is quite good but the damage is already done and I dont like how the company operates in general.

I've had a look at our agreement and theres nothing in there besides having to give them 90 days notice. I want to kick tennants out and get rid of current PM. I've got three options that I can see:

1) Ask current PM to find new tennants and then give them their 90 days. However i don't really trust them to find me quality tennants and I know they take alot of short cuts and would prefer not to sign a new tennnat with them.

2) Give them their 90 days notice now and also advise that I need new tennants. They definately won't give a rats about me after I give them their notice so I dont see this option panning out well

3) Find a clause to be able to terminate contract and switch to another PM company straight away. A good friend of mine is a PM for a company that I know has good practices and will look after me. This is my best option but not sure if I am able to do it?

Sorry, long post. Very much appreciate any feedback :)

Thank you

:)

you should talk to the office of fair trade your agency can only charge you management fees on what is outlined on there PAMD 20a and if they want to increase the fees you should have had to sign a new agreement. and the Max they can spend on maintenance without contacting you is also on the agreement.

they should have to pay you back for the additional management fees they have charged. telling them this alone would be enough for them to want to walk away with out collecting your 90 days fees.
 
Take a letter in to the owner of the property management business outlining what you've said below and say that you want to be let out of your 90 days notice immediately. That's what we did, he was horrified with what we said. The property manager was sacked, and we changed to a new agency the same day with no penalty.
 
Thank you for your replies :)
I'm thinking maybe it would be easier to get the current PM to sort out the current situation (rent arears, find new tennant etc) and then either try and terminate or if that doesnt work then give 90 days.
Because if i try and terminate now without notice and they say no...then im stuck with them to sort everything out knowing that im leaving them. They wont put in any effort.
And if they say yes thats fine, then my new PM will be unfamiliar with whats going on and have to try sort everything out.
Is it true that on a periodic lease the tennants get 2 months notice to leave even if they breach?
 
What kind of specialist? Like a lawyer? Sounds expensive :/

You don't need a lawyer. Your situation is routine. Office of Fair trading would probably not be interested in your situation, as the agent hasn't broken the law.

In response to Russell's post - whilst it is not best practice to charge a higher management fee than is disclosed in the PAMD 20a, to my knowledge it is not illegal. I presume they notified you of the fee increase in writing and you agreed? If they had misled you, different story. Does your health insurance company force you to re-sign documents when the fees increase - no.

In terms of changing agents:

Find and contact the new property manager and as them to take over immediately. You may need to pay the 90 day management fee out to the old PM, and they can take this amount from your next payment. They do not need to manage it for 90 days, they are just entitled to their lost income for 90 days.

You should take the management away from the old PM now. If you were fired from your job, do you think you would spend your last day at work productively? Probably not.

My advice, stop stressing and ask your PM friend to look after it for you. They can write the letters and you just need to sign.

Matt
 
Take a letter in to the owner of the property management business outlining what you've said below and say that you want to be let out of your 90 days notice immediately.

I agree strongly with luckyone.
Put your concerns in writing to the owner, email or letter.
Have a new PM lined up to take over. The new PM will take care of the transfer, and if they are good will clean up the mess left by the first PM.

Any one of your complaints should be enough to validate a no fee termination of the agreement.

I would not continue with this agency.

Even it were to cost you the fees for 90 days, getting it right with a good agency will soon save you that money and more.

Had a very similar situation to yours. I moved over to the following agency.

http://www.realestateworks.com.au

They are centrally located and offer the first 3 months free.
I have no connection with them other than being a satisfied customer.
 
Thank you all for your excellent replies! Very much appreciated.
The new PM advised that they can do the first 3 months free but after this period the management fee will be 9.9% instead of their usual 8.25%.

At this stage I've asked current PM to send tennant notice to leave. Do they get any notice if their not paying rent or do they have to leave straight away? Bit worried about tennant continuing to not answer calls/emails and just living their rent free. Bond will only cover another couple of weeks of non payment...and then theirs cleaning/repairs no doubt.
Also asked PM to look into management fee increase. If they confirm they made a mistake then may take action.
 
So did they tell you upfront the fee would be 9.9% instead of the usual fee or they are now saying that? This sounds like a bit of miss communication.


________________________

Thank you all for your excellent replies! Very much appreciated.
The new PM advised that they can do the first 3 months free but after this period the management fee will be 9.9% instead of their usual 8.25%.
 
well they said initially that they can't do first three months free. And then i said that alot of other agencies do it and she came back with the offer of first three months free and then after that its 9.9%
 
So where does this come into it?

- put my management fee up a considerable amount without telling me.

When didn't they tell you? Did you sign a PM agreement with a certain fee in it now they have changed it?

What was it originally and what has it changed too?
 
Ok so the PM increasing the rent without telling me is what my current PM did.
The PM that is offering 9.9% after first free 3 months is the new PM that i'm looking at going over to.

Hope this makes sense?
 
3) Find a clause to be able to terminate contract and switch to another PM company straight away. A good friend of mine is a PM for a company that I know has good practices and will look after me. This is my best option but not sure if I am able to do it?

Doesn't sound like your PM friend is able to look after you quite as well as you had hoped.
If that agency is the one you want, I would opt for the 8.25% management fee (if it's an option) and forego the 3 months free. Check that they don't have too many other fees to go with that too. The only other basic fees that I would expect are: a one week + gst relet fee if a new tenant needs to be found; postage & petties fee around $5.50 per month; & in some cases a set charge if they attend tribunal hearings on your behalf, though this may be able to be recovered from Landlords insurance.
Also, on any new management agreement, change the 90 days to '30 days'.
 
In Qld when a tenant gets to be 8 days in arrears they should be sent a Notice to Remedy Breach (Form 11) which gives them 7 days to pay outstanding rent, and if they dont pay up then a Notice to Leave (Form 12) gives them 7 days to vacate - which should have been done by your PM. Then if the tenant doesn't leave you have two weeks to lodge paperwork to court.

You don't say where your property is but I use a great Property Manager - Lu Bracher from Property Management HQ and as it is her business she looks after her landlords and won't put up with bad tenants - www.propertymanagementhq.com.au - she covers Caboolture to Pimpama and also does a 60 day free trial - Lu 0425 225 678. Lu was very helpful when I had to move from one agent to her.

I would suggest talking to potential PM's and it may be better for them to take over then change tenants or the old PM won't really be interested in putting in a good tenant.

I have also found the RTA to be really helpful - their website is quite good and the staff are also helpful in explaining things. www.rta.gov.qld.au or 1300 366 311

Good luck
Jacaranda (Heather)
 
I think they've upped it to 9.9% for everyone but because I had my property advertised with them a while ago (they didnt end up finding me tennant so went with other PM company) im still on their system and were going to offer me the rate that was going at that time (8.25%). But with getting free 3 mnths maybe their not giving me original rate anymore



Doesn't sound like your PM friend is able to look after you quite as well as you had hoped.
If that agency is the one you want, I would opt for the 8.25% management fee (if it's an option) and forego the 3 months free. Check that they don't have too many other fees to go with that too. The only other basic fees that I would expect are: a one week + gst relet fee if a new tenant needs to be found; postage & petties fee around $5.50 per month; & in some cases a set charge if they attend tribunal hearings on your behalf, though this may be able to be recovered from Landlords insurance.
Also, on any new management agreement, change the 90 days to '30 days'.
 
I've read through everyone's posts, so not all that much I can add.

However, I used to own a property management business in Canberra, and we managed 600+ investment properties.

While I tried to run a perfect ship, it didn't always happen, and there were times that an owner was upset and wanted to cancel their notice period.

Legally, there really isn't much I could do as the owner of the business.

As the property owner, you are within your rights to request your properties paperwork / files / keys immediately, the agency has no right to withhold anything.

You then contact your tenant and tell them to not pay rent to the agency, and job is done.

The agency technically could take you to small claims court, but in reality it would be the principals (agency owner's) job to do this, and I can guarantee you they won't have the time or the motivation to do so.

IF they did, you could argue failure to fulfill contractual obligations.

Don't let yourself get bullied into a 90 day notice period (which is ridiculous), especially when they are not managing your property in the way they said they would.

Hope this helps.
 
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