As the property owner, can I take the property manager to court for this?

Question

The tenants living in one of my duplexes trashed and abandoned the place. The property manager knows their new address, but has not made any significant effort to get the money for past due rent and damages. They say they're turning the old tenants over to collections, but its been more than 6 months now and still no word on when or even if I'm ever going to see any kind of reimbursement.

Answer 1

No.  All you can do is fire him.  This is a perfect example of why you should not use a property manager--they don't take care of business the way you would.  They will argue that they are following standard procedures in pursuing a deadbeat tenant.  You will probably not collect a penny from the collection agency.  You should ask your manager why he is not garnishing the tenant's wages.  After all one of the things the manager is supposed to do is keep track of a tenant's employment status (and location of all bank account's) for possible collection actions.

Answer 2

You can take the tenants to court and list your address as their last known mailing address.  Probably can not take the manager to court and win.  What did you like about this manager in the beginning.  What changed.  Seems weird.  /

Answer 3

You have as much chance as the property manager in actually collecting any of the money due.

You may never see any kind of reimbursment.