Absentee Landlord

[ClementDrive]

I'm an absentee landlord with two properties a long way away from where I now live. Work moved me away about ten years ago and I was unable to sell either property at the time and have been renting out since then.

It is now clear that I am not moving back and I am now happy to sell both properties at the first opportunity. Work has become difficult and I am doing everything I can to keep my job.

For ten years now, I have employed a property manager at 16 hours a week to manage both properties. However, I have got myself into a silly situation.

The problem is that the tenants in both properties are complaining that the property manager is not doing her job properly. Complaints are logged, nothing gets resolved. Tenants are now contacting me directly.

I have been trying to address the issue but every time I try to arrange a meeting / phone call with my employee she says she is not available.

I work during the week. My work is "difficult". I fear for my job. I have been told that my performance at work is unacceptably poor. I don't agree with this assessment but I am working as hard as I can.

Meanwhile my employee has been "off sick" for the last six weeks. Once a week I text her and ask if she is better but she says that I am unreasonable to keep on asking if she is feeling better. She says she will tell me when she is better.

I keep on asking to arrange a phone call to discuss matters but she says I am unreasonable to ask her to take a phone call in the evenings or at weekends.

I have said I want to meet with her but I can only drive there at weekends and she has said she is not available to meet at weekends and that I am bullying her because she is ill.

I have sympathies with her being unwell but ultimately I am paying her to do a job that is not being done because she is not well.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

16 hours is huge- we rent 6 properties out and I would not think we spend 16 hours a month on them collectively- yes things need doing we get on with it as and when. Get a decent agent in , address the issues and sell when needed. Can you find a decent trustworthy local builder and get the work done. Get rid of this person you must be paying £800 a month for what..nothing

Breaks not beaks

What does your contract say about absence and sick pay? Do you issue payslips, deduct ni and tax? It seems an odd arrangement and not one you can easily monitor. Who processes tenant references, deposits, rent etc? Nonsense that being furnished means agents won't manage a property.

What a mess! Your best bet is to sell your flats asap in which case your property manager will be genuinely redundant (job no longer exists). You would still need to follow the process and pay her redundancy payments though - 1 weeks pay for every year she has worked for you. There’s a risk if you don’t handle things properly she could take you to an employment tribunal so I’d really advise getting advice from an employment lawyer. Do that too if you decide to keep the flats because redundancy then becomes even more complicated.

It’s obviously not ideal that your tenants don’t want to move on when you sell, but it could be possible to sell with them as sitting tenants. Some estate agents specialise in marketing this type of property so ask around. If you do decide to ask them to leave make sure you give them plenty of notice and follow eviction processes set out in law. Wouldn’t hurt to get advice from a housing lawyer about this because again there’s a risk of going to tribunal if you get it wrong. Make sure you take legal advice local to the property because housing law differs across the UK.

Can you give her a final warning for her performance

Is she actually your employee ie you pay her NI, sort out tax, pension, holiday pay etc.

It seems such a strange way of doing things.

Even if you did need a property manager for those hours, which you don't, getting a contractor who was self employed would have been so much more straightforward.

The position could be redundant because you don't need a manager at all. I can't imagine statutory redundancy pay, if she qualifies for any would be that much.

Alternatively you can do a performance review and give her a set time to improve performance before sacking her.

You would need to know the exact rules though.

I use an estate agency to manage my rental. They take on furnished and unfurnished properties without problem, although unfurnished is generally more popular with tenants.

Your set up and issues seem so strange and overly complicated.

If she is trully your employee I guess yo mut pay her Tx& Ni etc?
in return she sends you sick notes and etcs.

What on earth does she( or is she supposed to do) 16 hours a week?

why have you employed someone rather than give it to an agency/ company.... are you sure she is employed and not self employed? do you pay her NI and tax??

Find yourself a standard agent. There are big ones attached to estate agents and local indpendants. Someone will take them on. You might need a different one for the student let. They will cost you around 10% of your rent each month. Then when you've found them speak to an employment specialist about getting rid of this individual to make sure it is done properly.

What is your contract with her? Do you do paye, tax, ni? What is her contractual notice period in her contract? What does her contract say about sick pay?

When she isn’t off sick, what does she do for 16 hours per week? Is she signed off by her GP or just telling you she’s unavailable? Is she self employed or are you her PAYE employer? So many questions about this set up.

Does your employee have set hours?
I don’t understand why she thinks it unreasonable to take a call in the evening or weekend.
She may have a point if her contract states 10.00 am to 2.00pm Monday to Thursday for example, but I would have expected that being paid for 16 hours every week for managing 2 properties she would need to be available for out of hours emergencies.
In practice she will probably only be working 2-3 hours (or less) on everyday maintenance, such as checking rent payments, dealing with safety certificates, etc.
Your situation sounds unenviable but also worrying. You need to at very least check that she has kept up to date with legal requirements. Presumably you can chat with tenants out of normal working hours?
I have never experienced letting agents having any problems with furnished properties. Their management fees are typically 7.5 to 15% of rental income, which is probably less than you are paying your non working employee.

Also, surely you can make her redundant because you no longer require a property manager for those hours. If you are selling up you do t need her or you can take on the role for yourself. What does her contract say?

Teeturtle
Rubbish. Being off work for six weeks does not make somebody disabled. And even if they were disabled, they need to tell the employer this and discuss reasonable adjustments, not going to work is not a reasonable adjustment.

That why i added the word potentially. The OP is unlikely to have policy and proceedures in place for the employee on how sick leave is managed, eg. employees should contact Employer by 16:00 Friday if they have been recertified for sick leave for part or the whole of the following week.
The OP has only said the employee is off sick. Not what the underlying cause is. If the OP is getting doctors certs reasonable accomadation kicks in once the employee is fit enough to go back to work.
Pregnancy illness is a common enough reasons for sick leave too.

If the employee has been working well for 10 years what changed?

Even if nothing changed is the employee looking to protect their job by going sick? The OP needs to act carefully and within employment law. The OP has already indicated that the employee was being awkward over out of hours contact.

OP is being too soft if anything, they should be starting dismissal processes by now.

Prior to going back to work the OP would need a dismissal on non performances due to long term /permanent incapacity.
Dismissal due to gross misconduct, poor preformance, etc all require the employee to have a chance defend themselves, she cant do if she is off sick.
PiPs need time and personal contact which the OP is not in a position to provide.
The OP is potentially investing 2 years of time to potentially loose on employment technicalities. That risk of loosing on lack of fair process is higher for a small employer with no HR process.
Paying for a legal opinion on the best ways to resolve the issue and the work out the costs involved.

I assume this is two blocks of flats that are being managed for 16 hours a week and OP has responsibilities towards tenants.

The OP is going to have to manage that without the employee. IMO if thats something the OP can do its quicker, easier and less stressful to do now rather than waiting for the employee to it sometime in the future.
The added benefit is that the OP is reorganising, downsizing and taking over the role of owner manager so the 16h local manager job ceased to exist while the employee was on sick leave.

Finding a decent plumber and handyman who has enough mates willing to subcontract would solve a lot of the OP's short term problems.

Sorry I can't answer all the questions without making this too identifiable, but there are some good ideas here, thank you.

Why can't you agree to meet your property manager during the week
Book some holiday time off work

You can sell with tenants in situ

Get your properties valued, so they are ready to sell

Hire a second person on a rolling monthly contract, 8 hours a week, say it is sick cover. Then when person 1 returns, say you are changing the job role slightly. Have both compete for the new role. Make the new job role measures that person 1 did not do satisfactorily whilst not on sick leave, according to tenants.

All the best

Is this person your actual employee? I manage over 40 residential let properties as part of my job and I probably don’t spend 16 hours a week every week dealing with them

Granted some weeks I do spend more time on them, like I reviewed all the rents the other week and created all the paperwork for new rents for about 25 properties, and that probably took up my entire week and I’m part time 20 hours ish. But that’s one single week of the year and not normal for me. Also some of our properties have had major refurbs so a lot of work coordinating it all.

I cannot imagine if I just had 2 properties and there was little turn over of tenants that it would take anywhere near that amount of time per week!