Property Management recourse

How do I get re-course on my Property Management agent in Florida USA. Due to failings in maintenance of by property in Florida I have lost Clients due
to the property not being cleaned and Algae in the pool. Can this be claimed
retrospectively as I lost $1700 in rental income back in Jan of this year and a potential loss of £1000 this month due to the property not being clean on guest arrival. I am a UK resident.

[OHlandlord]

I'm sorry. I will need more information on this before I can attempt an answer. I assume from your post that you own property in FL that a Florida management company rents it out for you.
1. Do you have a contract with this company? When does this contract end? Is there a clause enabling you to cancel the contract?
2. What does your contract say with respect to the type of cleaning and maintenance they will do in between or during rental periods? (Does it say they will ready the property for rent, clean the units between tenants, do pool maintenance?) What kind of "prep" work are they supposed to do prior to renting it?
3. For how long of a period do they rent the unit? (Is this a short term vacation rental where a client stays only a few weeks, or a residential rental where they sign a year's lease? This makes a difference on which laws cover the rental.)
4. What does the contract that the client signs with the management company (to rent the unit) say in respect to the tenant's responsibilities for cleaning upon vacating, or pool maintenance while residing in the property? If a lease, the client may be responsible to clean upon vacating and maintain the pool while living in the unit. (This is typical in the U.S.)

Please provide more detail and I can see what recourse is available to you.

Based on what you say here, you could file suit against them (or at least threaten to do so) in small claims court or in regular court; filing in small claims court is easier and requires no attorney...you could try to collect all of the costs and damages that you suffered due to their behavior...

[OHlandlord]

I'm not sure yet that the OP can win a suit like this unless he has the correct answers to the previous questions. If this is a short term rental (like a few weeks stay for vacations) it would not be covered under residential rental law, but may fall under the same category as hotels or B&Bs. In this case the cleaning and pool maintenance should fall on the management firm and he may be able to recover some of his losses. He would have to be able to prove the losses were directly attributed to the action (or lack thereof) from the management company.

However, if this property is long term rental property where the management firm signs a lease with the tenants for 6 mos or a year, he may not be able to recover these costs from them. In long term single family property rentals, the tenants can be made responsible for pool maintenance through a lease clause, and are always responsible for cleaning upon vacating. If the pool maintenance and cleaning upon vacating were due to the tenant's failure to fulfill lease obligations, these charges should have been deducted from the security deposit of the tenant. In this case, the damages deducted should have included repairs to the pool, cleaning of the unit, and if the tenant left the unit in poor enough condition that it was uninhabitable, the lost rent. The OP would have recovered these costs from the tenant, not the PM.

Thnak you for the correspondance todate.

In answer to the questions:

1) I have a contract with the management company for short term letting, I pay $100 managemnet fee per month, plus monthly fees for pool cleaning, pest control etc and $10 client booking fee and rental taxes with the management agent.
2) I pay a $70 cleaning fee after my client has left the property and the management agent visits the property prior to my guest arrival.
3) Short Term Rental only
4) My Clients contract is with me and not with the management agent.

With regards to small claims court action, do I need to be present in the US to action this?

[OHlandlord]

Since you pay the fees for cleaning and pool maintenance, their failure to maintain the unit as instructed is the management's failure. You will have to file in the small claims court for the area where the rental property is located. You may be able to file remotely, but you would have to be here for the small claims court's actual hearing. You usually cannot have an attorney represent you in small claims, but this varies from area to area. Call the small claims court in the FL jurisdiction, and ask if an attorney can represent an owner from another country in their court.

If the attorney is not permitted, you may be able to file in civil court and be represented by an attorney. You may want to study this option by calling the civil court in that FL city. If you cannot be represented by an attorney you would have to come here. Failure to appear in a case of this kind results in a default to the other party.

One last thing, is there a clause that will allow you to cancel this contract? When does it expire? I would fire this PM company and seek another to rent your property. This company does not seem to be doing their job.

Another route that has been advised to me is that I could raise a "Lien" against the Property Management Company. I just need to raise an invoice for lost earnings/breach of contract to the Management Company, if this is not paid with a set timescale, then go down the Lin route. Is this a pratical and vailid route?

[OHlandlord]

I doubt it. In order to be granted a lien, you usually need the monetary judgment from a court. You can send them a bill, but most areas will not allow you to put a lien on any business until you sue them in court and obtain an actual judgment. In my state, there is a provision for contractors to put a lien on your house for unpaid services to that property. There may be some provision for something like this in FL, but I have no knowledge of it. Check FL statutes for defaults on business contracts and see if they have any provision for this. If they do, you may follow the state law to place a lien against them. Otherwise, you must file with the court.

A couple other ideas: You might file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in that area. They will investigate the complaint. Although they have no official power to force the business to do anything, they do keep a list of companies with complaints against them. Other consumers can see that someone has complained about how that company does business. It will discourage other owners from using them as property managers.

Finally, check FL law to see if a property management company there has to be licensed by the government in order to manage property. Some states require that property managers be licensed and are regulated by the state. If FL requires this, you can file a complaint with the government agency that oversees all property managers. (This can usually be found under Real Estate law statutes.) This agency would have the power to enforce your contract or to pull their management license from them.

I'm sorry I can't help you more. With 50 states, it is hard for one individual to know the particular laws of each of the states. Since every state has different laws, and even those laws vary within the area of a state, it is difficult to give you an exact answer. Try researching the above ideas, perhaps they will help.