Not Looking Forward to My Day (This is a Long One)

I had a very enlightening conversation with Jen, my renter, last night. And why do I have so many Jennifer's in my life, lol? She called me last night and we talked for over an hour. It's really too bad that she lives so far away because I really think we'd be friends if we were neighbors. That's all beside my point here though. I found out that my rental management company isn't exactly doing their job.

The story:

I interviewed a couple different rental management companies back in VT. This one seemed to be the best for the right amount of money. We pay them 6% of the rent a month in exchange for their handling collection of the rent, any issues that come up with the house, and a once a month drive by of the property to make sure the renters aren't tearing the place up. We also paid them a one time "lease up" fee that was equal to one month's rent. This fee should have covered their writing the lease, interviewing potential renters, running background, employment, and reference checks, and ads in the paper. Now, here's my problem...

1.) In the beginning, I gave them a copy of a lease that C and I had drawn up that included specific paragraphs that we wanted them to include in their lease but wasn't supposed to be used as the actual lease. Turns out, they used it anyway despite me specifically telling them not to because it also included language that I didn't want included in the lease. Plus, I had marked it up and highlighted a bunch of stuff which should have made it obvious that I didn't want it used as the actual lease. They also only had Jen sign a 6 month lease and it should have been a 12 month lease.

2.) When we moved out, we were given very little notice as to when the MC was going to let us move which didn't allow for a lot of prep time. As the movers cleared each room, I went around behind them cleaning. Considering the time I was able to give it, I got the house really clean including scrubbing out all the cabinets, cleaning all the bathrooms, and vacuuming and mopping all the rooms. When Patti, the management lady, took over the house to prepare for Jen to move in, she called and said that the house was "pretty dirty", something she brought up in several different conversations, which really offended me. A.) We're not dirty people. And B.) I know how to clean a house when moving out. It's not like I haven't done a dozen times before. This has been bothering me since January so I asked Jen about it last night and she said that other than the normal stuff you do when moving in, she thought the house was pretty clean. She also said, "They even had the carpets cleaned for us." Which brings me to my next point.

3.) Before Jen moved in, Patti called and asked me if we would be willing to pay to have the carpets professionally cleaned because Jen had requested we do so. We agreed even though it hadn't been that long since the carpets had been shampooed. And Jen also said that every time she vacuums, white powdery stuff comes out of the carpet. Since this never happened to me, this tells me the cleaners didn't clean the carpets right.

4.) I posted about how I had to have roofers out to the house to see if the snow needed to be cleaned off. Well, it didn't and I e-mailed Patti about it and also told her to give Jen the roofer's number in case of an emergency since he only lives 5 minutes away and said that Jen could call him 24/7 if need be. Found out last night that Jen didn't even know the roofer had been out at all. This was back on March 7.

5.) Back during the roof deal, I found out that Jen had only paid $2016 upon moving in which should have been $2850 to include first month's rent, deposit, and a non-refundable pet fee. They were supposed to have cleared that up this month (March) and gotten the rest of the money to me on April 1st. Jen told me last night that nobody called her about it. With it being so late in the game and the fact that it was Patti's responsibility, I don't even feel right making Jen pay the rest of the money. I know if I was in her position, I wouldn't want to pay it.

6.) Also, Jen said that she's called them about a couple different things and they never got back to her about any of it. And when then loaned her a roof rake for the snow, they only gave the 5 foot woman 2 hours to use it and when she wasn't able to clean the entire roof off in the amount of time while standing up to her waist in snow, Patti bitched about the little bit of snow she cleaned off. Geez!

I'm pissed. Since Jen's moved in, I've felt like Patti's been nickle and diming us for every little thing which is why I handled the roof deal myself, and with the carpet thing, turns out I was right. All the repairs and stuff like that, Patti keeps in-house because they keep a handyman on staff and I think it was her son's "business" that cleaned the carpets which, in turn, is supposed to save us money. Since Jen's moved in, Patti's taken over $800 of the rent for various "fees" for the house. I have receipts for all of it so it looks legit, but now I'm not so sure. Everyone warned us about renting out our house but it was for the renters tearing the house up or not paying their rent or whatever. My renters are wonderful and we've already opened negotiations for them to buy the house. They aren't the problem. We were supposed to be able to trust the management company for pete's freaking sake!!! So now I have to call Patti and figure out wtf is going on and I'm not sure how to approach it. If I bitch her out too much, the level of service might drop off even more and then what am I supposed to do? If I let her get away with it, then the house isn't being taken care of properly and we're wasting our money. It's not like I'm in a position to find another company and besides that, we signed a 12 month contract (hence why it would have made sense for Jen to sign a 12 month lease). I don't know what to do here. Good thing I have a couple hours to figure it out. Whatever.

To be continued...