Another Property Management Tale

Some days are just really unbelievable. No one can make up these stories, but they sound like a bad creative writing assignment. I can't even make this stuff up.

Today is like the song "Manic Monday" and it started off in a race. The email was full and I knew that our property manager was going to pick me up to accompany her to a property that we've tried to enter and do maintenance on for weeks. This tenant has been very uncooperative and demanding. I'll try to tell this story in sequence, it may help me understand this a little bit....

Once upon a time, there was a tenant who had awaken  in the wee hours of the morning to find water on his floor. He, being a plumber, recognized the source and went upstairs to inform the occupant that there was a leak in the sewer line, into his apartment. He stopped the source of the leak. The upstairs occupant did due diligence and informed the owner/insurance company and restoration began on both units.

Now begins the the twilight zone. This tenant is a plumber and knows how to do a repair of this sort. He could have bid the job out and make some money on the whole deal. Instead, he decided to micromanage the company who was doing the work. About day two, he made a call to the property manager that the restoration company had contaminated his unit by walking in areas that were contaminated and into other parts of the condo that were not and now everything was contaminated and he couldn't live there. There were several emails and texts regarding this event. He was asked by the property management company to send in his receipts for reimbursement. None were submitted.

During this time, the restoration company was trying to work in the condo. They pulled up part of the floor in the closet and removed the vanity and flooring in the hall bath. He is a lone occupant in a 2 bedroom 2 full bath condo, so he still had ample living quarters, though he deemed it contaminated. The restoration company finally could not work with him, he was driving them out, wouldn't allow access to any one, including the management company.

The property manager went by several times, saw lights on, heard equipment running, but the the tenant would not allow entrance, because he wasn't living there. After many attempts to gain entrance via lease agreements, we filed a 48 hour notice to enter dwelling with the tenant. By this point in time, he claimed to have an attorney, that all correspondence had to go through the attorney, however he continued day and night to harass the property manager via texts and email.

Upon arriving at the residence for entrance, we were threatened not to open the contaminated "taped" doors (yes they were taped at the bottom to prevent...oh I don't know what) without allowing all contaminants to go free into the house. He picked up a video camera and began to video the whole 15 minute ordeal. It was sorta funny. We went into the bedroom to photograph the floor, I snapped pictures, he stayed behind me, in the contaminated, taped room. He was well into the room to the point of opening the curtains.

We moved into the contaminated bathroom, where he was still behind me. Bathrooms are funny rooms, very small and not designed to hold a party in. The property manager said it was "too crowded to hold us all and for him to move to the front side of us". As soon as she said that, he was already in my face trying to get a picture of me and I put up my hand and said, "before you do that, I want you to understand...." where he shoved the camera into my hand. He grabbed my hand to move it from in front of the camera, where I shook off his hand and continued taking pictures. He backed out of the room and the property manager shut the bathroom door. She kept her foot on the door while I finished up, maybe 3 minutes. We then walked out of the bathroom and out of the condo, being followed by the tenant and his camera.

Job done, pictures taken, time to go home. Now the sequel starts. I get a call from the police department that battery charges have been filed against me! Say What? Evidently, I shoved the camera into his face, broke his glasses and now he has blurry vision. Oh yes he did!

So, now I am faced with having to counter charge him for grabbing my arm. Really now.