Me and the fiance bought a house back in September through her family's long time realtor. We decided that we'd just rent my current house out and move. He said the rental market is great and it wouldn't be a problem. He's also a property manager so he'd handle everything. He'd pre-qualify the tenants, credit check them, take all phone calls, etc. Basically take all the stress out of it. Sweet!

Well, he got some tenants to move in in October. Male, female + 2 kids. The man and woman were "Friends" that were helping each other out. Well I kept getting calls from old neighbors complaining about them amongst other things. After 2 months, the male moved out and wrote an email basically to us stating A LOT of stuff. More people were living there than was identified, drugs in the house, etc. Lots of stuff. We were never able to catch them on it and once the male moved out, they eventually couldnt pay and we evicted them. I had to find someone to serve them, had to go to court, etc.

Once we finally got them out, the fiance and I went over, cleaned the trash out of the house that was left, deep cleaned the house, etc. Lots of work. Not to mention, I had to flip the bill for the unpaid water tab. The PM said he wasnt going to charge me the finders fee (50% of the first months rent) again because he felt bad for all of this. Cool, I guess.

We tried to sell the house so I didn't have to deal with tenants but after a month and not getting offers I needed, we opted to go the rental route again. He did some showings and so did I. Some clients at my regular job came in one day and asked about the house since they live up the road from it. Her son and wife were looking for a house and were interested. After I showed them the home, they wanted it. The PM had someone else interested but it wasn't the highest quality person and I felt better letting a young family move into the neighborhood. So we opted for my tenants, not his. Well I got my accounting statement for the month and he charged me the finders fee. I called him and he said "Well, things changed because we tried selling it, then back to renting it and I still had to come down for showings and other things. Approximately 5-6 times." I was getting a little heated by this point. In my business, if I say something, I abide by it for reputation purposes. He said he'd work with me and only charge 25% though. I said I had to think about it.

I wrote out a long email describing everything. How we ALL had extra work because of the tenants HE found and qualified. I also questioned what the point of a PM is when I was still dealing with phone calls and home welfare checks. I haven't gotten a response and no call back yet and this was 5 days ago. I checked the contract and it does say he can collect the finders fee for every new tenant that moves in. I think legally, I'm out of the money if he doesn't want to honor his word. However, I also noticed that in the contract, I gave him authorization to drop the rent down to a certain amount. The current lease is for much less than what I authorized in the contract. Can I go after him for the difference in rent for the 12 month lease? Do I have any recourse against him for costs I incurred because of HIS tenants he found?

Thanks!