Ethical Decision Making in Property Management and Sleeping at Night

I am reaching out to all of you seasoned managers and possibly property owners to get your input on
your decision making process when you’re in a bind that may have you questioning your position and how to effectively exercise good judgment, ethical practices and maintain your rapport with ownerships and in many cases residents.

Please share with me you troubled times when your losing sleep and stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to adhere to a code of ethics when possibly your employer or higher ups are
Encouraging you to handle a situation poorly.

How have you handles these tough predicaments?

Your experience could help someone in the same boat!

I lose sleep over most decisions that involve a decision to evict a tenant or allow them to stay.

I had inexperienced owners when I took over my current property nearly 3 years ago. I have years of Fair Housing training and just a few years of property management experience.

It was very hard convincing the owners we need to evict tenants for violations that were affecting the health safety of other residents when we needed the income very badly.

Every time I contacted them about a problem tenant, other than non-payment of rent, the always proposed the same questions: "Are they good payers?" It doesn't matter if they are good payers if they are housing convicted criminals as roommates or selling drugs on the property, they have to go.

They trust my judgement more now, but it took awhile.

Hi Joyce!

I don't know if I'm considered "seasoned" yet, being in this industry less than 10 years, but I've definitely lost my share of sleep about these kinds of decisions. Mostly, I just let the law decide, since landlord/tenant law is fairly extensive and specific in my state.

One case, a single mom, had a restraining order against an abusive ex, can't afford rent/daycare, etc., and has way too many complaints against her and non-compliance issues. I felt bad that we had to ask her to move out, but the law says if the landlord fails to enforce the lease terms, we lose the right to do so. After multiple non-compliance notices and curable for-cause terminations, we had to issue a no-cause termination with no option to cure. It didn't help that the resident could not speak or read English so she ignored the notice requiring her to move.

I felt bad for her, but this was not a moral or ethical decision for me, it was a legal one. If the law is vague in your state, it will be more difficult for you.

In our state, a "for cause" notice allows a resident to "cure" the reason for the notice within a defined period of time, or else they have to move out by a later set date. If lease non compliance continues, we issue a termination notice that is a "no cause." This means we cannot give the resident any reason for ordering them to leave. Residents always complain about this, but if we can't state a reason on the notice, there is no explanation we can give them. This can seem unfair, but residents don't have to give us a reason when they want to move by their own choice either. If they read their rental agreement, or paid attention when we explained it at move in, they should already know why.

Many years ago I managed a property that has units I knew had mold issues. I was not allowed to discuss this with the current residents, and was told to continue renting them if they became vacant. I quietly began offering a rent special for residents who wanted to transfer to upper floors (the mold units were basement apartments). Once I had them all vacant my RPM finally caught on and demanded I start renting those units. Although there was mold growing up the walls, we were just told to replace the drywall and move people in. I could not live with myself knowing I was moving people into a potentially deadly situation. After much pondering I decided to do the one thing I knew the higher-ups (above my RPM) would notice...I took all 14 of those units off the books and made them "down" units. That got the emails flying! Finally I was allowed to strip those units and get the necessary repairs done to prevent the mold issue. As payback my RPM claimed my occupancy was too low, although I only had 2 units other than those that were down available, and she transferred me to a smaller site. She also tried to reduce my salary to that of a smaller site manager, but I fought and won that battle. Actually I won all the way around; I got the residents out of dangerous units, got them repaired, and moved to a smaller community which was a breeze to manager, and kept a higher salary! I also updated my resume and took my time finding a new company to work for; one who's first word in their mission statement is Integrity, something my previous employer was lacking:)

Hello Everyone,

I think I understand what you mean, Joyce. I think what you are talking about is ethics versus morals. Ethical situations occur from an outward event and morals leads your personal actions regarding that event. When the two conflict, this is when you may lost sleep. In property management, I can say, for me, there have been times when the two have sparred but I handle questionable situations according to me principles because ultimately I have to live with myself.

I know someone who is fond of saying that his name is the only thing he has in the end and he wants his actions to reflect favorably on his name. That's a good motto to live by; however, when it comes to one's boss (or Owner or management company) directing you to do something that goes against your principles, that is when you either stand up for your principles or become a hypocrite. That being said, I know people can lose their jobs if disobeying an order.

Evictions are a source of this kind of stress, as others have said. Other sources of conflict may be: taking more of someone's security deposit than necessary; lying that a Resident did not pay when they did (and someone in your office kept the money); allowing an employee to do personal business on company time (maintenance on the manager's home, for example); letting people take off with pay and not reporting it or getting proper authorization; allowing a friend to live in a unit but keeping it as a vacant on the books or the opposite, charging someone rent, pocketing it, and not reporting it.

Ultimately, for dilemmas like these, there is more of a black and white reasonableness, so it should not be too hard to know what to do, even if it means the loss of your job. A person's integrity is a founding strength of character, honesty, and self esteem. I choose my internal voice of right, wrong, what is reasonable, and what is just over what the Owner/PMC dictates, if that voice inside my heart tells me not to compromise my principles.

Well Joyce, it comes to a point in which you need to reevaluate your position with the company you represent and your integrity. Employers come and go, but your integrity can be damaged for life if you allow it to be. If you feel that something is ethically wrong and you should not be doing it, than let your supervisors know how you feel and what you believe. If they still don’t understand or choose to operate poorly, than it is your choice at that time to see if that is the type of company you want to be involved in.

I have worked for other companies in the past, of which I have held very good positions and pays. However, when they made certain unethical practices I didn’t believe in, I quickly made the decision to separate myself from them. Which is why today, I am able to own my own Property Management company and get business strictly based on my integrity and reputation in the business.

Greetings,
My question is, as a resident living in my apartment for 4 years, never late on rent and an overall good tenant what are my rights and how do I get out of my lease if the property management /owner will not provide a safe, clean living environment? There's another tenant damaging property, assaulting residents, has been taken away by police a couple of times. He has a known mental condition and the management seem to have a problem evicting him. I'm afraid in my home. This tenant is unpredictable and dangerous. That's only half of the problem. The apartment building is secured but residents in the building prop the entry doors open for drug activity. I'm done with living in these conditions. I Need Help.

Thanks,
Shantelle

Shantelle,

I'm not sure this is a question of ethics, but more of a legal question. Managers cannot just evict a resident, and as you have observed, this particular resident may have a mental disability, which means Management has to tread lightly recognizing what their duty is to that disabled resident. This is always hard for the other Residents to understand: just as you stated, you feel Management has a duty to ensure your safety against the actions of another and Management also has a duty to maintain the rights of a possibly disabled individual. You should talk honestly with your Manager, put your feelings into words and see if there is a way to legally terminate your lease early. As to Residents propping open the door, discuss this, too, with Management. There may not be a way for them to prevent that at this time. You can always choose not to renew your lease.