Most of what you say, other than the fact that you are having to ask for statements, sounds normal. Here is how my office does it.
Between the 1st and the 5th, rent is paid.
On the 8th and 9th we pay all the bills for the month (subcontractors are used to being paid on the 10th, so they often don't send bills until around the 5th)
On the 10th, we pay all the owners we manage for, and take the deposits to 10 different banks around town.
When I get back from that, or sometimes on the 11th, depending on how the day went, I email all 40 owners we manage for and give them the breakdown of their monthly deposit, including copies of any deductions.
We have right in our management agreement that we are authorized to do minor preventative maintenance or ongoing type needed repairs under $250 without prior authorization. Most of these bills would happen during vacancies, like utility bills, lightbulbs, furnace filters, new keys/locks, etc that might not be a tenant expense. But sometimes, even though a tenant is maintaining the yard, it might need a fertilizer treatment, or some bark, or the sprinklers may have a gusher.
Or if an appliance is broken, it is going to have to be fixed, and if you have to have the appliance guys make one trip to diagnose, but not fix while they have everything taken apart, and have to make a special trip back, they are going to charge extra for the extra trip, so it is going to cost you more. So why make the landlord jump through the extra hoops, why not just let them get the repair done, assuming the repair is reasonable.
We do have one or two owners who like to do all the handiman stuff themselves, but in order to do that, you have to be available and responsive. Meaning you have to live in town, be available at the hours the tenant is available, and either answer your phone or return messages promptly. We've given properties back to owners before because of them being uncooperative on repairs.
Really it comes down to this. Why hire a property management company if you aren't going to let them manage the property?
HOWEVER, with all of that said, I COMPLETELY agree that they need to be sending you notice of deductions. Like I said, every single owner we manage for gets an email from me every month that says something like
Quote:
Rent deposited in your account this afternoon as follows
$900 rent
<$50 management fee>
<$75.62 plumbing repair> - see attached invoice
Total deposit of $774.38
|
And then I attach the invoice to the email. That way, if they disagree, which does happen occasionally, they can let me know.
Also, I totally agree that a locksmith because of a landlord mistake is a landlord expense.
I'm not following the story very well on the installation though. How did the dishwasher get into the house? Did Home Depot deliver it but not hook it up? If so, that is their fault, they should know what they are being paid to do. Or did it go to the PM's office and they had to schedule someone and have it delivered and installed? I can't say whether that charge was legit or not from the information given.
So TLDR version: Receiving rent on the 10th from a PM is pretty normal, imo. Having small items just taken care of and billed to you is part of why you hired a property manager, so let them do their job on legit stuff. But call them out on it when it is not legit, which some of yours were not.
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