Eugene property management company Bell Real Estate, Inc. has litigation filed against it seven times more than Von Klein Property Management, Property Management Concepts, Chinook Properties and Jennings Group Inc. on average.
An Emerald review of 1,315 court cases filed between Jan. 1, 2004 and Jan. 1, 2014 found that Bell Real Estate, Inc. had litigation filed against it 29 times, with the plaintiff recovering — receiving payment from the defendant — about 76 percent of the time.
When asked for a comment, Amanda Tuski, the general manager of Bell Real Estate said that she didn’t understand why Bell Real Estate’s numbers were different than the other four companies surveyed.
“Quite frankly, I don’t know,” Tuski said.
The review found that litigation was filed against Property Management Concepts four times, Von Klein Property Management three times, Jennings Group Inc. five times and Chinook Properties four times.
All of the suits brought on by tenants involved deposit disputes between tenants and property managers.
“I think the biggest misconception that creates frustration on the tenants’ part is that we are making a profit on turnovers,” Tuski said. “Bell Real Estate doesn’t profit on maintenance.”
Tuski explained that Bell Real Estate’s contract with property owners dictates that licensed, bonded and insured contractors be used to do any work on residences. In total, up to seven different companies may be hired after a tenant moves out including a painter, a general cleaner, a window cleaner, a professional carpet cleaner, a handy-person for any general maintenance work and occasionally a landscaper.
Per Oregon law, property managers must itemize any costs charged against security deposits.
“All this work needs to be done and they need to return the property back to us as they received it,” Tara Barron said, a principal broker and university specialist for Bell Real Estate.
Bell Real Estate, as well as Property Management Concepts, Von Klein Properties and Jennings Group all require the carpets to be professionally cleaned after move out. The companies give the tenant the option of hiring a truck-mounted cleaning company to do the work, or to have the property management companies hire a contractor and deduct the cost from the deposit.
Due to the volume discounts they receive, generally it is cheaper for a property manager to hire a carpet professional, but if a tenant wishes to hire his or her own carpet cleaner they must turn in a receipt from the cleaner upon move-out.
“I always try and find vendors that will give me a discount based on volume,” Tuski said. “Last year I had about 35 percent of tenants getting most of their deposits back.”
The demographics of the companies included in the review vary significantly.
Property Management Concepts is the largest property management company of those reviewed — renting out about 3,500 bedrooms around campus and about 800 single-family homes in Lane County. According to owner and president Terry Shockley, students represent about 50 percent of the company’s business.
Von Klein Properties rents out about 1,200 to 1,300 units, equating to about 2,200 total bedrooms. According to Von Klein, about 94 percent of its business is students.
Of the companies included in the review, the businesses of Bell Real Estate and Jennings Group most overlap with student housing comprising about one-fifth of business.
Jennings Group rents out about 400 single-family homes and 2,000 apartments. Jennings estimates that 15 to 20 percent of its business is with student renters. According to Darren Stone, a principal broker with Jennings Group, Jennings doesn’t keep track of its total number of bedrooms.
Bell Real Estate rents out about 1,700 units in Lane County. Of these, the company has about 360 student properties — roughly 20 percent.
After multiple phone calls and emails, the owners of Chinook Properties couldn’t be reached for comment.
Bell estimates that about 10 percent of its tenants dispute deposit refunds, while Jennings estimated that 5 percent of tenants disputed their deposits.
“Most of the time you sit and talk to somebody about it (and) they’ll be able to see ‘geez I guess it’s not totally unreasonable,’” Stone said.
“A tenant has the ability to dispute it,” Tuski said. “We try and explain why we charge what we charge.”
Bell’s policies and procedures align with the policies of all other companies included in the survey.
During the investigation of this story, the Emerald spoke with property managers, industry professionals, government officials and lawyers. It’s unclear why litigation is filed against Bell Real Estate seven times as often as its competitors.
Elizabeth Tippett is an assistant professor at the law school who teaches courses on mediation — something that all small claims cases in Lane County are required to go through before a trial. Tippett explained in an email that statistically speaking, plaintiffs recover more frequently than defendants in small claims courts.
“A high volume of lawsuits does not necessarily mean that the landlord is violating the law more than others,” Tippett said. “It is perhaps more accurately a measure of whether the landlord is nice to tenants when tenants complain and whether they try to work things out when problems arise. Small claims court is really about whether you made someone angry and much less about whether parties are engaging in lawful versus unlawful activity.”
The City of Eugene Rental Housing Program administers and enforces the city’s Rental Housing Code and receives complaints from tenants about housing. The code includes six areas of habitability, including structural integrity, plumbing, heating, weatherproofing, security and smoke detectors.
Pursuant to the complaint procedure “a complaint may be filed with the city only after the tenant has sent written notice to the owner or property manager.”
In a report which lists the total number of complaints received from July 2005 to January 2013, the department received 11 complaints from tenants of Bell Real Estate, five complaints from tenants of Von Klein Property Management, four complaints from tenants of Jennings Group, one complaint from a tenant of Property Management Concepts and one complaint from a tenant of Chinook Property Management.
“The rental housing code was a program created back in 2005. It’s really to make sure that the rental properties are safe for the people using them,” Laura Hammond said, the Community Outreach Coordinator for Eugene’s planning and development department.
Hammond explained that the report only indicates the number of complaints received, not the resolution of the issues.
“I think it varies pretty broadly,” Hammond said. “Some of the issues we can help resolve just through mediation or just through helping people have a conversation with their landowners.”
According to Bell Real Estate, the most common complaint involves mold or mildew.
“Mold is addressed through the weather proofing and plumbing standard,” Hammond said.
The Eugene Housing Code text notes that while mold may be a symptom of faulty plumbing, it is not necessarily indicative of a fault of the property managers. Tenants are responsible to keep proper ventilation running in wet areas of the residence — the bathroom, for example — in order to prevent the natural growth of mold.
“If the mold is a result of weather-proofing issues or plumbing problems, then they could address it,” Hammond said.
For Tuski, the number of complaints in the report is frustrating.
“I take it very personally,” she said. “I work really hard to try and make everybody happy. People look at these numbers and how can that be taken accurately if someone is not taking accountability for their part.”
Darren Stone of Jennings Group says that the key is to strike a balance between tenant satisfaction and business acumen.
“If you’re aggressively pursuing every penny you can, there’s a price you pay with your tenant relations and rental stability,” Stone said. “Our philosophy is that our relationship and reputation with our tenants is as important as our relationship and reputation with our clients.”
Tuski started at Bell as a receptionist and worked her way up before eventually marrying Brian Tuski, the company’s owner. The two have since separated, but for her it’s a family business.
“This is very personal to me; my children may or may not run this company,” Tuski said. “We work very very hard trying to improve every year.”