I answer my own phone * actually my office land line forwards to my cel phone * so when I received a call today from a Sprint cel phone number I answered it.
It was a man IDENTIFYING HIMSELF AS A PROPERTY MANAGER requesting a tenant reference. I advised him that I required a $25 FORMS FEE and a signed rent verification request from my current residents.....HE WENT THROUGH THE ROOF on the phone.
1) HE was not going to pay for a prior landlord reference. I HAD NOT ASKED HIM TO.
2) HE had never heard of a FORMS FEE and had never been charged a FEE for getting a tenant reference. I HAD NOT ASKED HIM TO PAY OR PROVIDE THE FORM.
3) HE wanted to know my BASIS for CHARGING HIM A FEE....you get the idea. He thought HE needed to pay the fee.
I advised him that the fee and procedure is in my residents' resident handbook that is a part of their lease AND that I provide the form and THEY sign it and pay the $25.
This process has been in place for almost a decade * since I kept getting rent verification requests when residents were buying a new home and each of their mortgage lenders wanted their own form completed. It became TEDIOUS so I instituted a FORMS FEE that has now become quite common with professional property management firms.
I provide the verification form and after receiving the residents payment, I complete it and send it electronically to their prospective landlord AND to the residents...they have it in perpetuity for subsequent landlords and EVERYBODY knows what I wrote in the verification.
I'm sorry the DIY landlord calling himself a property manager did not listen to my logic and my process....maybe he could have learned something.
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