Small landlords say they’ve been stiffed by property management company

Chris Coerber is a mom-and-pop landlord who says his property management company isn’t passing along his tenant’s rent.

“In May, we stopped seeing our rent that’s supposed to come to us. It came later and later,” says Chris. “By June, July we didn’t get any rent payments.”

The property management company he’s talking about is APMPros (Alekson Property Management Professionals) out of Bellevue. According to the company, it has more than 250 accounts in the region.

Chris says he’s out four thousand dollars in rent and deposits that, according to the contract, is supposed to be paid to the landlords by the 15th of each month.

“So many other people I talked with are in the same situation as we are,” says Chris. “It seems like he should be able to transfer money that is ours to our account pretty easily.”

Chris is not alone. According to the Washington Department of Licensing, there’s been 18 complaints and at least two lawsuits filed against APMPros.

“Here’s a business that’s not making it easy on anyone,” says Eric Ensign, of Seattle, who has two properties being managed by APMPros.

Eric says he’s owed upwards of five thousand dollars in damage deposits by the company.

“They’re hurting people on purpose, as far as I’m concerned, because they know what they have to do to make it right and they’re just not,” says Eric.

And in May, according to state documents, APMPros Owner Jim Alekson started a new business making hand sanitizer. It’s called The Lexi Group, LLC.

I called, then stopped by the address listed for both companies.

Alekson later sent me an email saying he is closing the business.

As for the newly formed The Lexi Group, he says it was launched in an attempt to help distribute PPE in the form of a non-alcohol based hand sanitizer.

Alekson says he’s told clients that they will get paid by years’ end. But many have bills to pay now.

“Discouraged for sure. We understand it’s a difficult time for everybody. This should be pretty easy to transfer the money that is our money. That our tenant paid,” says former APMPros client Chris Coerber.

Alekson tells me he was sick during this period - though not with Covid-19 - and that clients will get all of their money back with interest.

Now some of his clients say they are also in need of year-end documentation for tax purposes.

Having issues with your property manager is one thing. Having to deal with the IRS without paperwork is a whole other deal.

Email Jesse right now at consumer@kiro7.com

Cox Media Group