Screwed up and going down

Sometimes I get this awful feeling that I can't shake.  While at work yesterday I found a couple of errors I made.  Neither one means the end of the world but to my boss you would think so.  I noticed yesterday when doing my income reports that there is this one tenant who has not paid rent for the past two months.  I would not have caught it except that I printed off their payment history.  I am going thru and sending notices to tenants who owe money for various reasons.  This persons report shows no rent paid for Sept. and Oct.  Apparently when they renewed their lease last spring, I did not get the new dates into the system.  They have paid every month.  Since according to her report they had gone month to month so the non-payment did not show up.  I admit I am not always good at remembering to enter new lease dates.  When you go to enter a tenants payment it shows in their file what they owe.  If it is out of the lease dates it does not show they owe and I have to go in and manually put the charge in the system and then enter their payment.  I sent them an eviction notice yesterday after my call went unanswered.  If they come thru with their rent plus late fee's all will be fine.  I can just make sure that I go thru and make sure I catch anything I missed on other tenants.  I also called another tenant because they paid their June rent $200 short.  I had known this in the past but was busy and forgot to notify them.  No excuse.  They told me yesterday they were not going to pay the $200 and they had planned it this way.  They are claiming they went without their air for 3 weeks and it was so hot.  They reported it.  I passed it on to the maintenance guy.  It took longer because they needed a part that had to be ordered and it took a while.  Tenants are complaining that they were never notified that anyone had come into their apt. to check.  The  maintenance guy says he puts a notice on the door everytime they enter.  To be honest, I do not believe that because other tenants have complained about the same thing-no notice.  I will have to give them an eviction notice but maintenance and I want to be sure we get everything in line first because they will either want to contact the owner or will just move out and we will have to take them to court.  It is a married couple that own the complex.  He can be unreasable at times and sometimes if you make an error he will get very upset.  While this is the first time I have done this type of work, I have never succseeded in my past jobs so I always have this terrible feeling I am going to lose this job.  Even though his wife has told me I never have to worry, sometimes she gets all over me too.  I end up feeling worthless alot.  I can't and don't want to find another job.  I believe down deep that I do have job security and need to get all the experience I can as I want to do this type of work in the future.  I get very anxious when incidents like this pop up and can't seem to let it go until it is resolved.  I want to look at each mistake as a learning experience and go from their.  I should have caught the fact this one tenant had not paid last month but it was not a good month.  I had surgery the first of the month and got behind because I was in pain and had the use of really only one arm part of the time since the surgery was on my left wrist.  They removed 3 small bones.  I just wish I knew how to handle all of this, esp. the one owner because he can be next to impossible at times.  If things do not go right he will tend to get very upset.  I sometimes feel if it was not for his wife, I would not be here.

Thanks for listening.

Chelsi

sending healing vibes your way chelsi. take care of you. jamie.

btw - I don't think they can sue or discount their rent due to lack of a/c. I had a tenant try to tell me that once so I looked into it. Only lack of heat is a reason to withhold rent. Air conditioning is obviously a huge selling point, but it's not necessary. The issue about the repair guy going in unannounced is an issue, though (are you sure he actually went in? I'd wonder whether there actually was an issue with the part or whether he just made that up and never even checked on it -- guess I'm a bit jaded).

Often your local Bar Association will post landlord-tenant laws on their website. If you google the name of a major city in your state together with "Bar Association" you should be able to find something. I know in IL they can get mad & move out after giving appropriate notice (typically, 60 days), but they can't withhold rent for no a/c unless you have a non-standard contract (which isn't even allowed in our city limits) that specifically promises a working air conditioner during specified months of the year. If you're too nervous to ask your boss, you might be able to find out what the law says on-line (be careful, though. don't trust any websites except government sites & bar association sites). There might even be a hot line that you can call for free to find out what the law says.

Hope that helps. Try not to worry too much. Like Kitt said, we all make mistakes. The important thing is to own up to them & try to fix them as quickly & thoroughly as possible (and maybe send out a few resumes just in case ;) probably don't need to but it never hurts).

Hi Fakingit,

Just wanted to welcome you to the forum. You have come to a wonderful site where everybody is so kind and compassionate.

Keep posting.

Hugs, Karen