The previous Property Management blog post touched on evictions. This week we will cover another problem we deal with in the court system, small claims. Normally in dealing with your Real Estate Investment and property management small claims case, it is a slam dunk. Most cases are dealing with security deposit accounting whereas tenants claims are against owners and professional property management companies.
To give insight on how Access Asset Management, Inc. handles a small claims case I will detail our process and where issues can arise with other management companies. First, we ensure there are plenty of photographs at tenant move-in, obviously this ensures any invalid claim against the property pertaining to damage is easily dismissed. Next, it is the burden of proof upon the tenant to provide a Move-in inspection. Yes, we allow the tenant the opportunity to fill out their report and submit. Of course we have substantial amounts of pictures to back up any false claims on their report. This allows an unbiased report on our end as they can not longer say we missed something, and place the burden of proof on them. Further, at a minimum, we conduct yearly walk-through’s at lease renewal, with pictures and our own detailed inspection report. Moving forward, it is at the point when the tenant moves-out and 21 day security deposit accounting is completed; the tenant feels wronged in some way and files a small claims case. Lastly, this prompts information gathering on our end, whereas all pictures, emails, accounting, lease documents and pertinent information is strategically placed and arranged in professional binders. Usually a case begins with mediation, and if you come prepared many times the tenant understands they have no case. If we end up going before the judge, our evidence clearly supports our fair charges and we win the case.
Now the reason for this article is to show our level of preparedness while understanding that inevitably there is bias in the court system. Ultimately while the judge works to be impartial to the facts, they are giving a subjective ruling. It is important to note that without a prepared Professional Property Management Company you could be liable to damages and compensation up to 3 times the security deposit. There are cases where we feel the evidence is strong on our side but understand the grey areas a judge could be looking at. Recently a case came up where the Property Managers were 50/50 on whether or not we would win the case. One Property Manager wanted to settle, while the other wanted to fight it out in court to see the outcome for future cases. The case ended up ruling in the tenant’s favor. The case was going well, and it wasn’t until he made his verdict that we were floored. Regardless, we walked away knowing we did our best and sometimes there is just enough subjectivity to make a poor ruling. Licking our wounds and learning from this case. Showing that there are certain cases that your Property Manager should advise you to settle on, and others he should fight tooth-and-nail for. In hiring a local Property Management Company you should bring up case examples and ask them how they prepare.
If you are looking for a trustworthy, hard-working and dedicated professional property management company, give us a call. Even if you would just like some advice in how to handle an issue with a past, current or future tenant we would love to help. Serving Riverside and Orange County including Lake Elsinore, Corona, Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, Perris, Hemet, Riverside, Ontario, Chino, Chino Hills, Redlands, Moreno Valley, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Yorba Linda. Access Asset Management, Inc. http://www.accessasset.com
