Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Maturity - thy name is Rental Agent!

We own a house in another part of the country. It is currently rented out to a nice family who really takes good care of it. Unfortunately, we will need them to vacate the property in a few months. They heard rumors to that effect and asked the rental agent. The agent, in turn, sent us an email.

I responded to the email telling the agent our intention was to give the tenant 90 days notice to vacate. She said she'd tell them. I asked her to please respect our wishes and give them 90 days. She would not have had to lie to the tenants, but could have told them I had not given them official notice yet (which was 100% true).

At the 90-day mark, I emailed the agent asking if she notified the tenants. She replied with a copy of the letter she sent them, which was dated about 120 days prior to the termination date. Incidentally, this is the exact same date we emailed back and forth and I said I wanted her to wait and give them 90 days!

I sent an email back saying "I distinctly recall asking you to wait until [90 days] to send that notice. I see the letter was dated [the same day we emailed]. I do not appreciate your disregarding our wishes." I asked another question as well. I got an email back answering my question.

Yesterday, I received a letter in the mail. It was a notification of termination of rental agency agreement! It says,

"Due to your feelings that we have disregarded your wishes in managing your home, this letter is to inform you that we are submitting a 30-day notice of Termination Of Rental Agency Agreement for the property located at.... We believe that this will resolve your issues in the most efficient manner."

WHAT?! WTF is that?! This is a big agency...I can't believe they can actually do business like this!

WAY mature, don't you think?

Incidentally, I have already contacted the tenant and all is well. We will work all of this out and be fine. Our only regret is that the rental agent quit before we got a chance to fire her (which we'd TOTALLY been discussing).


6 comments:

  1. Rental Agency - Here to help you - just don't get crazy. :-) BQQ

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  2. That's weird. Glad things worked out despite the crazy interference.
    When are you going back?

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  3. Sounds like you save yourself 2 months of paying the rental agent. If everything is cool with the tenant, sounds like you came out ahead.

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  4. I would think, with the real estate market in the crapper, that they might be a little less hasty to let go of clients. Weird.

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  5. Wow, how crazy and immature! I'm glad you're able to work directly with the renters :)

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