Property Management Issues - Georgia
Location: Georgia
I finally have a legal question!
We own a home that we inherited from my wife’s mother in a city about four hours away from us.
We hired a property management company to take care of the property for us in February, and they rented the house to a tenant in April.
A few weeks ago, we happened to be in the area and did a drive-by. We noticed a trampoline in the backyard. That prompted us to check our homeowners insurance to make sure we were covered. As it turns out, our policy specifically excludes trampolines. If something terrible were to happen, we would not have coverage.
We immediately contacted the property management company and told them we wanted the trampoline removed. We also asked them for a copy of the lease.
They stalled for a while, but eventually sent us the lease. That's when we discovered that trampolines are also specifically prohibited under the lease.
The property manager contacted the tenant and came back to us saying that the kids really love the trampoline and that the tenant wants to keep it. The tenant has offered to sign a "hold harmless" agreement to protect us if someone is injured.
We said no. We want the trampoline gone. It's specifically excluded from our insurance policy, and it's specifically prohibited by the lease.
The property manager has now come back to us again, offering the "hold harmless" agreement as the solution.
What we don't understand is why the property manager isn't simply enforcing the lease they are being paid to enforce.
We have an appointment with a lawyer next week to discuss our options, including whether we can terminate our agreement with the property management company without penalty and how we can enforce the lease.
I'd love to hear some thoughts from the community. Has anyone dealt with something similar? Is there something we're missing here? What would you do in this situation?