READY FOR THE BIG EVENT?

The Florida Apartment Association (FAA) Education Conference and Trade show will be held at the Caribe Royale in Orlando this year from August 26-28 with incredible room rates, but you need to register now!  This is the biggest event for the multifamily housing industry in Florida, and this year promises to be the best yet. There will be a huge trade show, educational programs, awards, parties and a lot of fun for all. Advance your career, get to know the top industry leaders in Florida, and have a great time in Orlando!

Click here  for information and registration.

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NO MORE NOTICES AFTER NON-RENEWAL

You have followed the proper procedure for non-renewing a tenant.  You checked the lease for the amount of time needed for the non-renewal notice.  You sent the right non-renewal notice form.  It was correctly addressed to all the tenants.  It was properly served.  Perfect. You have a hot prospect waiting to rent the apartment for a nice increase in the monthly rent.  Your current tenant is refusing to leave, and now your attorney tells you that the tenant is probably entitled to stay for another month after the vacating date referenced on the notice, and you have to serve a new notice. What happened?
 
Click here  for info on the risk of sending certain notices after a non-renewal notice.

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FAX, PHONE OR EMAIL?

We pride ourselves at Heist, Weisse and Davis with attorney accessibility and an experienced large staff, 3 attorneys and 19 staff members here to serve YOU, the property manager. Whether it be a simple eviction status question or a complex matter, we encourage you to contact us. There is never a charge.  We handle no other areas of law than those directly related to property management legal issues that arise on a day to day basis, and we believe in early detection and avoidance of unnecessary problems. Try to revise your FAX COVER SHEET by putting your email address boldly on the sheet to get a quicker response.

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PROPERLY RELEASING A TENANT FROM THE LEASE

Many tenants are looking to terminate their lease for all kinds of reasons: job transfer, complaints about the premises, unrectified situations with the upstairs neighbor, crime that may have occurred on the property, tenant being stalked, sickness, or possibly the property owner in the single family home setting is in foreclosure. Sometimes it is just best to part ways, stop the fight and have an amicable divorce occur between the landlord and the tenant, but the key to success is to make sure all the financial, vacating, personal property and other arrangements are clearly spelled out.

Click here to see how to have a smooth landlord/tenant divorce.

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BED BUGS AND DISCARDED ITEMS?

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure, and this is clearly evident in the fact that the couch, mattress or chair left by your dumpster will sometimes mysteriously disappear. Where did it go? Did the kind tenant take it to the dump? Unfortunately, it is in another one of your rental units, and the same bed bugs are now infesting another unit on your property, resulting in potentially expensive treatments and infestation of nearby units. Train your maintenance techs to destroy or render useless any items which could end up in a unit, and then make sure they themselves are not now carrying the bedbugs on their clothes.

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FORECLOSURE AND THE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY MANAGER

Not a day goes by that we do not get another question about foreclosure by the single family home manager. We always direct the caller to  www.evict.com as we have articles on the subject and have compiled an easy Q & A on foreclosure. Not all questions can be answered easily, so we encourage you to call, or better yet, email us if you have an unusual situation.

Click here for our “Foreclosure Quick Q & A”.

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FAILING TO TELL YOUR ATTORNEY ALL THE FACTS

If this isn’t the worst day of your professional life, it’s close to it.  You’re returning from an eviction hearing.  The judge found for the tenant.  He awarded $3,360 to the tenant and $8,000 in fees to the tenant’s attorney, both of which the landlord, your boss, has to pay. The tenant had given you a rent withholding letter 3 weeks ago, but you never mentioned it to your attorney, and now you lost in court. You’re very worried you’ll lose your job in property management.  This could have been avoided if you had disclosed all the facts to your attorney when you sent the eviction, but it just slipped through the cracks.
 
Click here to make sure you have disclosed “all the facts” to your attorney.

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INDUSTRY LEADER OF THE MONTH – RON WENZEL, ARCHON Regional Manager

Enlisting in the USAF Reserves and serving for 4 years as a medical administrative specialist, Ron joined American Residential Mgt. as a leasing consultant in Dallas.   Shortly afterwards, he joined Southmark as Leasing Director, and within 6 months he was promoted to an Asst. Manager.  He then joined Dallas based Windsor Mgt. as a Site Manager and moved on to Wells Asset Management as a multi-site manager, becoming Vice President of the MF Division and overseeing 32 multi-family assets. Ron earned his NALP, CAM, CPM, CAPS and ARM and became heavily involved with the Tarrant County Apt. Associations and later the Austin Apt. Association, serving positions on the board, executive committee, instructing and as delegate to TAA and NAA, winning AATC’s “Professional Designate of the Year” award. Ron and partners started a HOA management company called Alternative Management Group, Inc, where Ron continues to remain a stock-holder.  Shortly after leaving AMGI, Ron took a position in Austin as a DM for Orion, where he helped to develop, oversee and lease-up 14 new assets across the state of Texas.   During these two years in Austin, Ron won the prestigious “Professional Designate of the Year” award. Ron Joined Archon in late 2001 and is currently a Regional Manager based in Orlando.  He currently oversees 12 conventional assets across the state of Florida.   The current Vice President of the Apartment Association of Greater Orlando (AAGO) and soon to be President for the upcoming year 2010, both AAGO and the Florida Apartment Association (FAA) are quite privileged to have Ron on board!

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ARE YOU HELPING YOUR COMMUNITY?

Food banks are nearly empty for the first time in many years. Some of the most successful food banks and soup kitchens in Florida are just plain running out of food and funding. The loss of jobs has dramatically taken its toll on many of your tenants, and donations to food banks, shelters and soup kitchens have fallen off. Speak to your staff and consider creating your own small food bank, or at least providing a canned food donation box in your leasing office. All it takes is a little notification to your residents and a nicely decorated cardboard box to create a food collection point that can really make a difference. Remember that it is not just Thanksgiving and Christmas when people need donated food!

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