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Old 03-14-2014, 10:36 PM
 
Location: southwest TN
8,568 posts, read 18,028,513 times
Reputation: 16701

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Not leaving a forwarding address and not having one are not the same. If the tenant had a job, a forwarding address can be found. If you can find the tenant on facebook, you can find the tenant. Send the tenant a snail mail. Write on the envelope: address correction requested. Make sure you pay the extra fee for that service. Then send the letter to your rental address. Send it first class ONLY. That way the tenant does not have to sign for the mail. Many times the PO will send you a postcard with the corrected address.

You can also send a "notice of winning" to the tenant via electronic media and request a snail mail addy. The winning is they get to receive your summons!

I also agree with suing the PMC. The job of the PMC is to do more than just collect rent; but you should read your agreement with them. If the property damage is extensive and it's likely that an inspection of the property would have revealed this before the tenant vacated, then hold the PMC responsible IF such inspection is in the agreement.
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Old 03-15-2014, 08:43 AM
 
10,599 posts, read 17,789,535 times
Reputation: 17349
Landlord Tenant statue in Florida is very clearly written and generous to both the tenant and landlord. Except non payment, action is SWIFT.

It also specifies the requirement of leaving a forwarding address when giving notice (yes I know they probably just moved out and didn't give notice). Is that right?

BUT what was YOUR specific agreement with the PMC? Were THEY the ones who were supposed to evict the tenant for non payment or were THEY referring it to YOU or they just weren't in contact with you.

Are you SURE it wasn't YOU who dropped the ball? For example, the PMC notifying you the rent was late and you not taking action or speaking with them directly?

You have responsibility here, too because you obviously saw that the rent was not being deposited in your account, no? For MONTHS??

You can evict in FL within DAYS.

The statue says that if a landlord misses the deadline notifying the tenant of deducting repairs from escrow they can still sue later for damages in NORMAL situations so you can do that too.

IF you miss the deadline to notify the tenant of claims on the escrow you pretty much miss the boat on keeping that escrow if THATs an issue but it doesn't sound like that's in the picture here. But other people reading this need to be aware.

It won't cost you anything to sue the PMC but you will need alot of documentation.

NEXT TIME, have the landlord tenant statue printed off and clearly understood.

Make sure your PMC has good references and a track record.

Review the agreement with the PMC in DETAIL what their roles and responsibilities are, and consequences.

Have them replace the AC filter MONTHLY in PERSON in the LEASE so they can quietly "inspect" the house while they're in there.

Put your conditions of a real inspection in the house in the lease, like "every three months" or something, where they must agree in writing.

IF YOU DON"T GET PAID - EVICT. Within DAYS.

Last edited by runswithscissors; 03-15-2014 at 08:52 AM..
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Old 03-15-2014, 09:24 AM
 
3,490 posts, read 6,068,149 times
Reputation: 5421
Must agree with runswithscissors in regards to evicting within days.

Must disagree with quiet inspections unless you are running a slum. If you have middle class residents, it is like spitting in their face. If you are running a slum, they'll probably forget about it while cooking meth, but that's the real reason to be checking in anyway. Nevermind the significant added cost of replacing your filters every month and having someone out there every month (labor cost). Even if you do it yourself, you're significantly raising costs. However, if you are dealing with a run down apartment complex and can do 50 replacements in a day, you could get real economies of scale going. In that case, I'd say inspect the air filter every month and change as needed. That way you could replace less often and still get your walk through in, and if you are renting to those kinds of renters, you'll probably catch far more than enough problems to make it worth your while.
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Old 03-15-2014, 10:17 AM
 
Location: Arizona
3,146 posts, read 2,703,287 times
Reputation: 6055
Your main issue should be with the property manager. If you signed a management agreement with them you basically gave possession of the house to them. You're effectively locked out of your own house in that case.

The property manager scam is an old one. Many will put any tenant in a house who can come up with the move-in costs so the PMC can get their placement fee, after that they will take late/partial payments, as long as the tenant is paying enough for the PMC to get their monthly fee. It's not much better than tossing the keys to your house to a random stranger walking down the street.

If the tenant pays late the PMC will make excuses to give them more time to get caught up before booting them. Again, they take their full fee and give you the partial payment. If the tenant doesn't pay anything for the month, the PMC will take their fee out of the security deposit.

If the PMC does boot the tenant, any unpaid rent or damages are the responsibility of the PMC, and they're not very motivated to do much for a terminated lease that isn't bringing in money, so they stonewall the whole recovery of damages/rent stage. They have better things to do, like finding more properties to manage.

PMC's that do this have this scam down pat.

If you use a PMC for the next go 'round, be more invovled in things. Have them send any pprwrk to you, especially tenant screening. If the tenants are so much as one day late with the rent, demand a 3 day notice to pay or quit. Have the neighbors involved as much as possible - if the lease prohibits pets and the neighbors tell you they can hear dogs barking, have the PMC boot them for violating the lease. Ditto for people living on the property that are not on the lease.

Living out-of-state makes it difficult but not impossible to manage it yourself. If you can rent it for slightly below market to ensure lots of inquiries, and be extremely picky about who you let move in it could work well for you. Screening is the key, done properly it'll solve most problems from the 'git go.

Anything short of this is just blindly rolling the dice, unfortunately.

Last edited by tommy64; 03-15-2014 at 10:32 AM..
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Old 03-15-2014, 10:29 AM
 
Location: NYC
113 posts, read 135,919 times
Reputation: 315
Didn't the PMC get the tenant's social security number? Did they do a background check before renting it? Maybe there's something on the application that will help you locate them.

I agree that you should be suing the PMC in the first place. This is why you have one and they definitely dropped the ball on this one.
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Old 03-15-2014, 10:54 AM
 
Location: Arizona
3,146 posts, read 2,703,287 times
Reputation: 6055
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYGirl1002 View Post
Didn't the PMC get the tenant's social security number? Did they do a background check before renting it? Maybe there's something on the application that will help you locate them.

I agree that you should be suing the PMC in the first place. This is why you have one and they definitely dropped the ball on this one.
Even if the PMC did, it's still up to the PMC to go after these tenants, and they probably have better things to do.
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