Misbelieves of Switching Property Management Companies

There are several misbelieves circulating on the housing market, that are indeed false believes. Either your current property manager tries to pull you back from the truth, or you just don’t know what is true and what is false, anyways, hereby we bring out the truth for the following objections.

“You cannot switch your property management company while it is occupied by a tenant.” - FALSE

The TRUTH is that the tenant has nothing to do with who the property manager is. Since the contract is established between you and the tenant, the property manager is only a third party – that can easily be removed or switched. The property management company has no legal option for withdrawing the lease contract or taking your tenant. On the other hand, the whole process will mean no extra inconvenience for the tenant, who eventually will be even more satisfied with the new situation as he or she will receive better service.

“The tenant has decisive right in the question therefore he must be convinced too” – FALSE

The TRUTH is that the agreement with the property management company was made between you and the company; therefore the tenant only experiences the changes. It is the landlord’s decision who he appoints to represent his property.

“The tenant will move in case of a new property manager steps in” – FALSE

The TRUTH is that if you have a signed lease agreement with the tenant, then the new situation will not change it. However, if the tenant would terminate the agreement he will lose the security deposit as normal.
It is also possible, that the property manager tries to convince the tenant to move another apartment he is managing. This is legally and ethically wrong.

“There is no other way than to travel to Budapest and close the deal in person” – FALSE

The TRUTH is that everything can be done from abroad – there is no need to travel to Budapest and close the deal in person. The most common solution is hiring a trustee or an authorized agent. This agent has the right to handle your affairs, and the property manager must cooperate with him. The property manager must communicate with your trustee, and must handle him all the documentation. It is a legally correct option. 

“The switch is overly complicated and difficult with enormous amount of tusk to do” – FALSE

The TRUTH is that after you appointed the new property manager, he or she will do everything for you. A professional property management company takes all the burdens from the owner’s shoulder. However, there are indeed a lot of things to do; yet this will be a routine job for the professional property management company.
This is why it is highly important to not swap the steps of switching property management companies: first find a new one, and then remove the previous one.

For many years, Tower International has been taking over homes and leased apartments from other companies. Experience shows that the more time a landlord let himself spend in a bad property manager-landlord partnership, while more and more problems are arising from it, the more the landlord looses in the process. Representatives of Tower say that in many cases serious rental raises can be achieved only because the former property manager kept the apartment for an unrealistic price for years. Are you sure you get the most out of your home in Budapest?