We are in the midst of swapping to a new PM due to our current one being seriously slack with getting repairs done etc. this is our first IP and we have had it for three years. it is in a small country town and at the time of purchase there was only an option of one PM in the area. recently a few other ones have started up and we have had one recommended to us and we have signed with them.
the changeover is supposed to happen in a week and today i get a call from our current PM's assistant to ask if it's OK if our new PM can come pick up the keys etc, and start today as they need to give our tenant a notice to vacate and it should be sent by the new PM, not the old one.
I ask her why are they giving the tenant a notice to vacate, and she says that she is behind in the rent and has been on a payment plan for a while but has fallen behind.
then recently she had her phone disconnected and noone is able to contact her. apparently she is still at the house as the curtains move etc when they call around but she won't answer. they apparently told her she had to be up to date by the end of july or she would be out. after not being able to contact her after that they have been slipping notes under her door every day for the last week and have now decided to give her the NTV.
so after hearing all this I am absolutely fuming - why haven't they told us that our tenant has been paying rent late or is on a payment plan? I have spoken to them on the phone about repairs/the switchover etc at least 3 times in the last two months and there has been no mention of any of these problems.
I called our new PM and she said she is picking up the keys today and going over this afternoon and entering the property with another person from her office. She told me that our old PM told her that the tenant is $1300 behind in rent, which is over two months worth.
Maybe this is all my fault and I should have asking direct questions of the PM regarding rent, but we have been getting our statements as usual and nothing seemed amiss (though its hard to tell as the figure is always different with repairs, etc coming out). I have certainly learned my lesson now.
Can other more experience landlords tell me what I need to do in the future with regards to checking that everything is OK, that I should have been doing with the previous PM?
I am also wondering if there is any type of action we can take against the old PM with regards to her not telling us the tenant wasn't paying. If she had asked us what we wanted to do once the rent was a fortnight late, we would have been able to start the whole NTV process there and then if we had wanted to....I assume there is nothing we can do now though.
the changeover is supposed to happen in a week and today i get a call from our current PM's assistant to ask if it's OK if our new PM can come pick up the keys etc, and start today as they need to give our tenant a notice to vacate and it should be sent by the new PM, not the old one.
I ask her why are they giving the tenant a notice to vacate, and she says that she is behind in the rent and has been on a payment plan for a while but has fallen behind.
then recently she had her phone disconnected and noone is able to contact her. apparently she is still at the house as the curtains move etc when they call around but she won't answer. they apparently told her she had to be up to date by the end of july or she would be out. after not being able to contact her after that they have been slipping notes under her door every day for the last week and have now decided to give her the NTV.
so after hearing all this I am absolutely fuming - why haven't they told us that our tenant has been paying rent late or is on a payment plan? I have spoken to them on the phone about repairs/the switchover etc at least 3 times in the last two months and there has been no mention of any of these problems.
I called our new PM and she said she is picking up the keys today and going over this afternoon and entering the property with another person from her office. She told me that our old PM told her that the tenant is $1300 behind in rent, which is over two months worth.
Maybe this is all my fault and I should have asking direct questions of the PM regarding rent, but we have been getting our statements as usual and nothing seemed amiss (though its hard to tell as the figure is always different with repairs, etc coming out). I have certainly learned my lesson now.
Can other more experience landlords tell me what I need to do in the future with regards to checking that everything is OK, that I should have been doing with the previous PM?
I am also wondering if there is any type of action we can take against the old PM with regards to her not telling us the tenant wasn't paying. If she had asked us what we wanted to do once the rent was a fortnight late, we would have been able to start the whole NTV process there and then if we had wanted to....I assume there is nothing we can do now though.