Truckee Meadows Property Management

Since we live out of state, Truckee Meadows Property Management owner [redacted] was appointed property manager for our single family home in Reno in Dec 2012. We had a tenant sign a lease for 3 years in March 2013.On April 4th, 2014 [redacted] terminated our contract due to issues she had concerning our Landlord Insurance Policy. Initially she accused us of not having a proper landlord insurance to which we responded by calling our insurance company and requested them to fax and explain the policy details to her, which was promptly done and acknowledged by [redacted] via email as a valid landlord policy. Then [redacted] sent us another notice to terminate because she wanted to be added as an additional insured on the policy to which I responded by calling our insurance agent once again to add her an "insured party". Our insurance agent explained to her that they were required to see a general liability policy in the name of Truckee Meadows Management Company to add their name onto our policy as per his company policies. Her email reply to the agent was that "it was unacceptable" and she got argumentative and unaccommodating at this point.On 3rd April 2014, I sent her an email to explain to her that we wanted to transition and did not want to terminate the contract. I have an email from her that says " We will be closing out everything by tomorrow" which means she terminated the contract on her own accord.Currently she is withholding $500 of our rental income by claiming that we terminated the contract and that we owe her that money for wrongful termination. She also returned the tenant their deposit check and told us to deal with the situation. At this point we had no deposit money from the tenant and the tenant was illegally living in our property as [redacted] had terminated the tenant's contract as well. She left us and the tenant in a lurch and refuses to pay us the balance amount of $500. Gmail conversation thread between Ms Cook, our insurance agent and me is attached.Product_Or_Service: property managementDesired SettlementWe would like [redacted] to pay us $500 of our rental income that she is illegally withholding.Business Response On December 20, 2012, we entered into a Property Management Agreement (the "Agreement") with [redacted], the owner of 1757 Fox Run Road, Reno, to manage the rental home owned by [redacted]. His wife, [redacted]h is the party with whom we were asked to interact, during the term of the Agreement.Paragraph 14 of the Agreement reads, "LIABILITY INSURANCE - Owner shall obtain and keep in force adequate insurance against physical damage and against liability for loss, damage, or injury to property or persons which might arise out of the occupancy, management operation, or maintenance of the Premises. Liability insurance shall be adequate to protect the interest of both Owner and Agent. Owner agrees to name Agent as an "additional insured" on its liability insurance policy, and furnish Agent with certificates evidencing such insurance within ten (10) days of the execution of this Agreement. In no event will such liability coverage be less than $500,000 in value. Said policies shall provide that notice of default or cancellation shall be sent to Agent as well as to Owner, and shall require a minimum of ten (10) days' written notice to Agent before any cancellation of or changes to said policies."The above language is in all of our Agreements, and compliance with that provision is required of all our owner/clients. [redacted] and [redacted] understood the provision, and provided a Certificate of Insurance that complied with the provision on December 28, 2012. On 2/18/2014, we became aware that [redacted] had canceled the insurance policy for which we held a Certificate, and obtained non-compliant insurance coverage from another company. On that date, we advised [redacted] that she needed to have the new company issue a Certificate complying with Paragraph 14 of our property management agreement, and that the Certificate needed to be delivered to us immediately, to avoid a breach of the agreement. Subsequent notices were issued by us to both [redacted] and her insurance company on 2/26/2014, 2/27/2014, and 3/01/2014, all without response or compliance on [redacted]'s part. Again, on 3/4/2014, we made another request to both [redacted] and her insurance company, reiterating our previous requests, and specifically advising that the terms of our Property Management Agreement were in breach. We received no response from either [redacted] or her insurance company.On 3/21/2014, we sent a "FINAL NOTICE" to [redacted], along with copies of prior correspondence on the matter. On that day, [redacted] responded by sending us a non-compliant Certificate of insurance, and stating that we should contact her insurance agent. We responded to [redacted] immediately, advising her that the Certificate did not comply with the requirements of the Agreement, and that her agent had ignored our prior requests.On 3/28/2014, [redacted]'s insurance company sent another non-compliant Certificate. We contacted [redacted] and her agent, again requesting a compliant certificate. On that same day, [redacted]'s agent replied with a request that we send evidence of co-insurance of [redacted] on our own liability policy. Such a request is highly irregular, and not in compliance with the terms of our Agreement. We declined to co-insure [redacted], and again repeated the requirement of our Agreement.Finally, on 3/31/2014, we sent a "Notice of Cancellation" of the Agreement to [redacted]. Although not required to do so, we extended even more time for compliance, giving her until 4/04/2014 at 12:00 noon, PDT to comply. That same day, [redacted] responded in an email stating, "The decision to terminate the contract is up to you. Unfortunately, we cannot spend all of our time changing insurance after insurance agents. It's difficult as it is to find reasonable ones these days and I do not wish to deal with unreasonable property managers at this point."In accordance with the terms of our Agreement, having still not received evidence of the required insurance coverage, we terminated the agreement for the Owner's failure to provide required insurance on 4/04/2014. Paragraph 19.2.2 of the Agreement reads, "Failure to Act, et. - In the event that any insurance required of Owner is not maintained without any lapse...and Agent, in its sole discretion, considers that action or position of Owner or its representatives with respect thereto may result in damage or liability to Agent... Agent shall have the right to terminate this Agreement at any time by written notice to Owner of its election to do so, which termination shall be effective upon the service of such notice..."Paragraph 19.3 of the Agreement provides for "Termination Compensation," should the agreement be terminated subject to Paragraph 19.2, referenced above. The termination compensation of $500 is exactly what is provided for in the Agreement, and it is what we collected upon termination. As to [redacted]'s allegation that we terminated the rental agreement with the in-place tenant, that is simply false. On 4/04/2014, we emailed both the tenant and [redacted]. The email reads,"[redacted],This email is written to inform you that we are no longer managing the property in which you reside, effective at 12:00 noon PDT, tomorrow - Friday, April 4, 2014. The property owners will be taking over management at that time. We are copying the owners on this email, and we expect you will hear from one of them soon. The owners are [redacted] and [redacted]h. Contact information for the owners is:EMAIL: [redacted]PHONE: [redacted] OR [redacted]MAILING ADDRESS: [redacted]Your lease will remain unchanged, with the exception of the payee for your monthly rent, and that all correspondence, work requests, etc. will now go through the property owner and not us. The owner will be provided with copies of your lease document and move-in checklist, as well as your historical payment ledger.Because we collected your security deposit, we will be refunding that to you, directly. Our check will go out to you tomorrow. When you receive your refund from us, you'll need to pay your deposit to the owner, so that the owner will then become responsible for its disposition when you vacate the home, at some point in the future.We have enjoyed having you as a renter, and we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have.Sincerely,[redacted] and [redacted]"As indicated in the above email, [redacted] was provided with all documents related to the tenancy in the home, including the tenant's rental agreement, move-in checklist, historical payment ledger, original rental application, and contact information. The tenant also has the same documents and contact information for the owner.We trust this clarifies our actions in this matter, and substantiates the fact that we not only complied with the provisions of our Agreement on the [redacted] property, but we went above and beyond to accommodate [redacted], in hopes of preserving our contractual relationship.On request, we will be happy to provide copies of the Agreement, plus all correspondence referenced in this answer. Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)We still don't know why she refused to show her general liability policy to our insurance company to be added as a additional insured. The insurance company policy states that they are required to see general liability policy of the property manager to add them as an additional insured. This shows that she clearly did not want to resolve this issue and cancelled the PM contract under this pretext. We requested her help to resolve the issue on April 3rd, 2014 but she clearly stated in her email "We are closing everything out by tomorrow, [redacted]". In this case, we clearly have NOT breached the PM contract and thus she is illegally holding part of our rental payment.Final Business Response As previously stated, the contract was terminated due to the complainant's breach of Paragraph 14 of the Property Management Agreement. Termination was "for cause," and several notices were given by us, prior to termination. Please refer to Paragraphs 19.2.2 and 19.3 of the Property Management Agreement. These paragraphs explain the method for terminating "for cause," and also explain "termination compensation," which is the amount in question, and the subject of the complainant's dispute. We followed the contract to the letter, and this complaint is unfounded. Please do take the time to read the paragraphs referenced above, before submitting your next reply on this complaint. You will see that we acted in accordance with all terms of the contract, and are under absolutely no obligation to meet your current demand.That said, we are willing to split the difference with you, provided you withdraw this complaint, and sign a full release. Upon receipt of evidence that this complaint has been withdrawn, as well as a signed full release, we will refund 1/2 ($250) of the termination compensation we are entitled to under the contract. Please advise if you would like us to email a release form for your review. Final Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)Ms Cook has acknowledged that she did terminate the contract. Therefore she cannot ACCUSE us of breach of contract and needs to pay us the entire rental amount of $500. She has been unwilling to work with us and our insurance company for a few months now and thus escalated the situation. In spite of our willingness to work with her she chose to be hostile and unreasonable in working with our insurance company.