We do not live in a rental anymore, and here is part two of our rental fiasco. You can view part one here (Lousy Rental Upkeep (Part 1)).
(edited for privacy reasons)
Date: 9/29/2006
To: [name of management company]
From: Travis Blubaugh, ([name of complex and unit])
To Whom It May Concern:
I have taken the time to write this letter to inform [name of management company] of the reasons that we are choosing not to renew our lease with [name of management company]. There are a multitude of reasons all of which seem to point to one place; lack of customer service.
It seemed evident from the start that we were going to have problems with [name of management company]. Below is a list of our issues that were unresolved or took an abnormal time to complete.
- 11/02/2005: We signed to a one year lease with one month free (two half rent months as it was explained to us, 11/2005, 10/2006). We asked for copies of our lease and all paperwork involved of which we only received sixty percent of what we requested. Excuse by previous Resident manger to us was that corporate keeps them and they do not issue copies to tenants. This is a great cause for concern because I believe this violates disclosure. We are going to hold [name of management company] to this promise regardless if it is not in our original lease agreements. We have two open item statements that note the free month rent.
- 11/7/2005: Door issue, took six months to complete. New door was installed in mid April 2006, deadbolts that were promised were not installed until 7/19/06. More detail in attached letter from 03/01/2006. Resolved. (This letter is part one)
- 01/28/2006: Called [Previous Maintenance guy] to inform him that the snow needs to be taken care of because of a snowstorm on the 01/28/2006(snow storm on 1/26/2006 was not taken care of to this point either). He said “is it bad?” He said he would make a call because he was out of town and would not be back until Tuesday 01/31/2006.
- 01/30/2006: Multitude of Issues discussed with previous RM regarding the lack of sufficient lighting in parking lot, poor snow removal conditions, a laundry vent issue we had. Also asked for paperwork, was again told that she was working on getting it. Respectively we were told corporate had new lights on order, [District Maintenance manager] was working on changing vendors; fix the vent with duct tape.
- 03/12/2006: Informed [District Maintenance Manager] about the growing maintenance items on campus (parking lot lights, garbage on premises, our door situation, the laundry vent situation, and snow removal)
- 06/23/2006: Called [Replacement maintenance guy] to take care of a large spider in our apartment. My wife was in tears because of what [Replacement maintenance guy] had told her, I called [Replacement maintenance guy] (I was out of town) and he got into with me about It was his day off, and that spiders even if dangerous happen because “this is Iowa”. I then informed him to get the pest people out on the site to re-spray. He told me that we would be charged the fee for that, to which I told him we are already paying that per our rental agreement. He continued to argue with me till I said I would call [District Maintenance Manager].
- 06/26/2006: [District Maintenance Manager] called and apologized for [Replacement maintenance guy]’s behavior, I told [District Maintenance Manager] that perhaps the pest people should come back and spray our building again. [District Maintenance Manager] said he would have them do it again, but they never showed.
Going through this list, one could say that the issues were with onsite personnel. However I do not believe that. One reason I do not believe that is because [name of management company] believes they can manage two sites in Boone alone with one maintenance tech and one Resident manager. Based on turnaround in employees and tenants, it does not take a college degree to figure out that A) People are upset because they are not getting their requests fulfilled per their lease agreement, and B) Employees are overwhelmed with requests and keeping tenants happy.
That is what it really comes down to is keeping your tenants (i.e. your customers) happy. Unsatisfied tenants choose not to renew their lease and vacate. Vacant units do not pay rent. Enter the local employees. It is hard for them to continue to keep tenants when their hands are tied by the corporate red tape. Tenants become unsatisfied and leave, this is because the local employees are forced to do their jobs as PR and take the bad heat for corporate.
I used to think that our previous RM was not competent for the position she was in. I am not so sure that was the case, as I have seen the same conditions with our current RM. I know it is bothering our current RM because you can see it on her face, as for our previous RM, it was probably more than she could handle as well. I feel extremely terrible that I treated have treated both RM’s and maintenance techs poorly. I should have realized that it is not their fault because their hands are tied.
I have also heard from new tenants that their rent is higher than ours. The solution to loss of earnings is not to raise the rent that will just harvest more unsatisfied customers. Try focusing on keeping [name of management company]’s current tenants. They’re the best/worst PR [name of management company] can have. Satisfied tenants tell others about how nice it is, unsatisfied tell others to stay away.
[name of management company] might also try working on soft skills, like politeness, not giving excuses or returning customer’s phone calls. To date I have had twenty three un-returned phone calls.
I can truly say I do not regret choosing to not renew our lease agreement with [name of management company]. I feel that we have been over charged for poor service at the very best. I know this letter will probably be used as flame bait towards our current RM, but it should be noted. [Most recent Resident Manager] has done all she can to make the current tenants happy. It is too bad that I can not say the same for corporate.
Truthfully,
Travis Blubaugh
As of right now, the company that managed that complex sold it to another company because they were having problems keeping occupancy. From what I understand the new company made some changes and have up kept the property far better than the previous. I don’t have a way to verify it, but it appears their occupancy is up as well.