Sold my portfolio and the property management isn’t paying me out

[Sue Vivilacqua]

Anyone else dealt with this and what did you do? I had several properties being managed by an Ohio property management company. I recently sold all the properties.  I have a pretty large balance sitting in an account with her which included balances From not getting paid the last two months of rental income and  tenant deposits and maintenance reserve funds. Also she has not added in one of the rentals deposits into the account and had shorted me on two other deposits. I’ve already paid money to the new owner for all the deposits. Also she deducted funds from my account last year to pay water bills and I found out those were never forwarded to the water company so I had to pay that out of pocket last.  Onth. I’ve sent numerous emails with proof of things to her and her team requesting all my funds. I very rarely get a reply and not everything is addressed. I finally got a small payment processed but she still owes me over $11k. I am not in Ohio so I am trying to figure out how to force her to pay me all my funds. Any advice? 

[Alfath Ahmed]

Quote from @Sue Vivilacqua:

Anyone else dealt with this and what did you do? I had several properties being managed by an Ohio property management company. I recently sold all the properties.  I have a pretty large balance sitting in an account with her which included balances From not getting paid the last two months of rental income and  tenant deposits and maintenance reserve funds. Also she has not added in one of the rentals deposits into the account and had shorted me on two other deposits. I’ve already paid money to the new owner for all the deposits. Also she deducted funds from my account last year to pay water bills and I found out those were never forwarded to the water company so I had to pay that out of pocket last.  Onth. I’ve sent numerous emails with proof of things to her and her team requesting all my funds. I very rarely get a reply and not everything is addressed. I finally got a small payment processed but she still owes me over $11k. I am not in Ohio so I am trying to figure out how to force her to pay me all my funds. Any advice? 

 I would look into consulting with an attorney and maybe even going to the agent's broker and/or the Ohio Division of Real Estate. 

[Sue Vivilacqua]

Here is an update. I was able to contact and speak with the broker she works under and told him what’s going on and how long it’s taking to get my money back.  I sent him the emails I had sent the property manager too. He was very nice and promised he would contact Rebecca immediately. I did tell him she’s got till Friday or I’m filing complaints with all the agencies you all told me about.He told me he was going to tell her if she didn’t get this handled asap he was going to tell her he would no longer be her broker.  Lo and behold she finally responds. We went back and forth all week hashing out what was owed to me. There were a lot of inaccuracies in her accounting records.…some in her favor and some in mine. She did try to argue about a $300 pet deposit. She said pet deposits do not and never have been refunded, it is a fee they keep. I reviewed the agreement we signed with her and there is nothing in it about pet deposits or fees and it’s not listed as a fee they keep.  Also the tenant agreement only states it is a pet deposit, not a pet fee or pet rent and does not say that it’s non-refundable. She is crediting that back to me, as I’ve already paid the new homeowner/landlord this money. She has also credited me back the other deposits in full and refunded me some overcharges I found. On one deposit she tried to argue that she only received $750 from my prior management company but it was $900. She said she’d give me the $150 difference to get this closed, like she was doing me a favor. I have the original lease she was given when she took over and it states the deposit was $900. She renewed the lease and listed the deposit as already paid. Then she renewed it again a year later and wrote $750 was the deposit. So she tries to tell me the deposit was $750 not $900. Last week she asks me if I have a record of what the deposit was that the previous management company sent her 3 years ago. REALL? I got records from the previous management company that shows they gave her $900. I was also charged $975 twice in 3 months for a new tenant lease fee, should only have been one charge. Her and her staffs record keeping is terrible.  So we’ve come to an agreement on what’s owed and she sent me a message last night that she’s processed the payment. So I should see it hit my bank account on Wednesday. I’ll keep you posted. Thank you all for your advice and information. It was invaluable. Without that I think I’d still be waiting for her to respond to my emails. 

[Shawn Krieger]

Quote from @Sue Vivilacqua:

Here is an update. I was able to contact and speak with the broker she works under and told him what’s going on and how long it’s taking to get my money back.  I sent him the emails I had sent the property manager too. He was very nice and promised he would contact Rebecca immediately. I did tell him she’s got till Friday or I’m filing complaints with all the agencies you all told me about.He told me he was going to tell her if she didn’t get this handled asap he was going to tell her he would no longer be her broker.  Lo and behold she finally responds. We went back and forth all week hashing out what was owed to me. There were a lot of inaccuracies in her accounting records.…some in her favor and some in mine. She did try to argue about a $300 pet deposit. She said pet deposits do not and never have been refunded, it is a fee they keep. I reviewed the agreement we signed with her and there is nothing in it about pet deposits or fees and it’s not listed as a fee they keep.  Also the tenant agreement only states it is a pet deposit, not a pet fee or pet rent and does not say that it’s non-refundable. She is crediting that back to me, as I’ve already paid the new homeowner/landlord this money. She has also credited me back the other deposits in full and refunded me some overcharges I found. On one deposit she tried to argue that she only received $750 from my prior management company but it was $900. She said she’d give me the $150 difference to get this closed, like she was doing me a favor. I have the original lease she was given when she took over and it states the deposit was $900. She renewed the lease and listed the deposit as already paid. Then she renewed it again a year later and wrote $750 was the deposit. So she tries to tell me the deposit was $750 not $900. Last week she asks me if I have a record of what the deposit was that the previous management company sent her 3 years ago. REALL? I got records from the previous management company that shows they gave her $900. I was also charged $975 twice in 3 months for a new tenant lease fee, should only have been one charge. Her and her staffs record keeping is terrible.  So we’ve come to an agreement on what’s owed and she sent me a message last night that she’s processed the payment. So I should see it hit my bank account on Wednesday. I’ll keep you posted. Thank you all for your advice and information. It was invaluable. Without that I think I’d still be waiting for her to respond to my emails. 

 congrats

[Ray Hage]

Quote from @Sue Vivilacqua:

Here is an update. I was able to contact and speak with the broker she works under and told him what’s going on and how long it’s taking to get my money back.  I sent him the emails I had sent the property manager too. He was very nice and promised he would contact Rebecca immediately. I did tell him she’s got till Friday or I’m filing complaints with all the agencies you all told me about.He told me he was going to tell her if she didn’t get this handled asap he was going to tell her he would no longer be her broker.  Lo and behold she finally responds. We went back and forth all week hashing out what was owed to me. There were a lot of inaccuracies in her accounting records.…some in her favor and some in mine. She did try to argue about a $300 pet deposit. She said pet deposits do not and never have been refunded, it is a fee they keep. I reviewed the agreement we signed with her and there is nothing in it about pet deposits or fees and it’s not listed as a fee they keep.  Also the tenant agreement only states it is a pet deposit, not a pet fee or pet rent and does not say that it’s non-refundable. She is crediting that back to me, as I’ve already paid the new homeowner/landlord this money. She has also credited me back the other deposits in full and refunded me some overcharges I found. On one deposit she tried to argue that she only received $750 from my prior management company but it was $900. She said she’d give me the $150 difference to get this closed, like she was doing me a favor. I have the original lease she was given when she took over and it states the deposit was $900. She renewed the lease and listed the deposit as already paid. Then she renewed it again a year later and wrote $750 was the deposit. So she tries to tell me the deposit was $750 not $900. Last week she asks me if I have a record of what the deposit was that the previous management company sent her 3 years ago. REALL? I got records from the previous management company that shows they gave her $900. I was also charged $975 twice in 3 months for a new tenant lease fee, should only have been one charge. Her and her staffs record keeping is terrible.  So we’ve come to an agreement on what’s owed and she sent me a message last night that she’s processed the payment. So I should see it hit my bank account on Wednesday. I’ll keep you posted. Thank you all for your advice and information. It was invaluable. Without that I think I’d still be waiting for her to respond to my emails. 

Glad to see this worked out for you. I hope the payment really came through. I've heard of terrible property management but this sounded like outright theft (rather than mismanagement) based on your story. 

[Joe Norman]

Glad to hear this worked out. I still would file a complaint with the Ohio Real Estate Commission though, bad operators like this do not belong in the profession.

[Michael Smythe]

She's giving all us hardworking PMC's a bad name!

None of us our perfect, but integrity is obviously missing here.

[Kelsey NA]

Hi Sue, 

I sent you a message on FB messenger. Can you please check it. Thank you! 

[Sue Vivilacqua]

Hi Kelsey. I messaged you back 👍

[Colin Lewis]

You are not alone. I did contract work for her and for a while it was ok. Payments were usually late but I was still getting paid. However my company was hired to install windows on one of her properties and after the work was completed I got nothing but radio silence. While her and her husband relaxed on a beach me and my guy froze our butts of completing the job. It's now 30 days since the job was completed and no matter how many calls or texts I send they just do not respond. I am now having to go to file a lien and that doesn't even seem to scare them. If I had to guess she has over leveraged herself and is using other people's money to try to combat the problem. After looking into them more deeply many contractors and investors have been ripped off by these people my advice is to sue them and cut all ties. Then let anyone who will listen know what kind of people they are.