Property Management Company Might Be Turning Around

I decided to give my property management company a call and ask why I have still not received any more money from the May rent and late fees that were collected. I was able to speak to Lee, the bookkeeper. This is a good sign for two reasons: First, he's the bookkeeper, so he is going to be able to tell me what is going on directly, rather than me having to go through my property manager, who relays my request to him, then relays his response back to me. Second, and more important, I believe Lee is a new hire to the company. I had heard that the old bookkeeper left and for a while, one of the owners was handling the books and this was what was causing the problems.

Anyway, Lee tells me my tenant is current except for some late fees. I ask for his payments and was told he paid $550 in May, plus another $100, then he paid $750 for June. Well, that means he still owes $100 for May. Lee says the May rent was pro-rated because he was a new tenant. Excuse me?! No sir! He has been there since I bought the property! In fact, he paid full rent for March to me directly. When I moved the property to them for managing, he also paid full rent for April, which Lee confirmed he saw. So Lee is going to check the lease and see what is up. If you recall, back when I first bought the place, I discovered the people who were paying were not on the lease, so I had them sign an addendum adding their names to the lease. Unfortunately, the addendum did not have a date on it when it was signed - an unfortunate oversight. However, I told Lee that since I faxed the addendum to him, it should have a timestamp on it from the fax machine. He's going to research this and get back to me.

So, the current status is the tenant has paid for June and still owes $100 plus about 3 weeks of late fees for May. The good news is that Lee said my check for June did just get mailed, so I shouldn't have to wait forever to get paid this month.

Update: Lee called back within about 10 minutes and confirmed that he received my fax on March 23rd, so the tenant definitely should have paid full rent for May. Lee said with all the late fees, he now owes a total of $230 and a bill will be going out to him today. My calculations confirm that figure is correct. Wow.. I'm dealing with someone who appears to be competent! I love it!