Q: Can our landlord's property management company charge us a 10% late fee?
Our rent check automatically goes out from our bank account to arrive by the due date each month, and it's been this way for 3 years. Sometime last year, they asked us via email to change the payable from ******* Management Company to *** Investments, LLC., which is the name of the landlord's company who owns multiple units in this complex. There was no mention of a change of address, and our point of contact still being this management company's employees, I then had the bank send out the rent checks to **** Investments, LLC., c/o **** management company, to the same postal address.
This month they claimed the check was forwarded to a completely different address because we put "c/o ****management company" in the mailing address, and hand-delivered back to them by someone at that other address. They also claim they sent us multiple notices in the mail to take out the name of the management company, but we never received their notices. Neither did the other tenants whom we know.
A: If the lease states there is a 10% late fee, that controls.
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