FAQ's & Policies: Owners - American Heritage Properties

FAQ’s & Policies: Owners

Welcome!

Welcome to American Heritage Properties. We are honored you have chosen us to manage your rental property and look forward to working with you.

We have prepared this Owner’s Handbook to help you become familiar with the way we operate. It is important for us to make the experience of renting your home hassle free. In order to do this, there are a lot of systems in place and procedures we follow. This Handbook will essentially give you a behind the scenes look at what we do for you, and provide specific detail for many items in your contract.

We serve a wide variety of clients from individual owners to investors. Some of our clients live locally and many live out of state or even out of the country. It is impossible for us to determine each person’s individual needs and expectations. We have established systems to meet the needs of our clients and ensure compliance with industry standards and California law. It is our goal to provide the best service to our clients within our established policies and procedures.

We hope you will find this handbook helpful. If there are any questions that are not answered here, please do not hesitate to contact your property manager.

Company Address

Our office is located in Scripps Ranch on the corner of Scripps Ranch Boulevard and Hibert Street.

Our address is:

American Heritage Properties Inc.

9988 Hibert Street Suite 300

San Diego Ca 92131

Main line: 858-695-9400

Main Fax: 858-695-1643

Office Hours

Our regular office hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and closed for lunch between 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm. Our leasing department is open on Saturdays with the same hours.

We have a 24 hour emergency hotline for tenants to report emergency issues.

Holiday Hours

Our office is closed on the following holidays:

New Year’s Day

Easter

Independence Day

Thanksgiving Day

Christmas Day

Our office is open with modified hours on the following days:

Memorial Day

Labor Day

Day after Thanksgiving

Christmas Eve

New Year’s Eve

During the holiday season our activity slows down drastically; particularly around the Christmas and New Year’s holiday. We typically modify our hours to adjust to the work flow. Since the activity of our office is evaluated each year at this time, we do not have a set schedule to provide ahead of time. We will always have someone on call to respond to emergencies when our office is closed.

Website

This handbook and other forms/information are available 24 hours a day on our website:

www.renthomes.com

You can also find us on Facebook. We encourage you to “like” our page to be aware of any information or updates that may be of interest to you.

Emergencies

A member of our staff is on call for emergencies when our office is closed. If a tenant reports an emergency such as a flood after hours, someone from our office will be on call to handle the emergency. They will first determine if the situation is an emergency, and then take the proper action. Emergencies are determined by the possibility of property damage such as a flood, or a safety issue such as a gas leak.

Our on call staff does not have access to property files outside of our office. Homeowners and home warranties will not be called for approval on emergency items. The proper action will be taken to protect you from liability and also to ensure that insurance will cover your claim (should you need to file one). Insurance companies often reject claims if action was not taken immediately to prevent further property damage. The most common emergency calls we receive are plumbing related.

General Office Information

Our office consists of four departments. This includes Leasing, Management, Marketing, and Accounting.

Our leasing department takes all incoming calls. They will answer questions for prospective tenants and set up appointments for them to view the home. Our leasing agents are trained to show properties on the market for rent whether they are vacant or occupied. Our agents will always walk room to room with prospective tenants when the home is occupied. Our leasing department is located in the front office and greets everyone that comes into our office.

The property managers are broken up into three different groups; each responsible for approximately 400 properties. We have group 11, group 33, and group 44. Each group consists of a Senior Property Manager, Property Manager, and Assistant Property Manager. We have structured the groups to try and have at least one team member in the office during regular business hours. Due to the nature of property management, team members will often have appointments in and out of the office. We encourage both owners and tenants to make appointments with their managers to ensure they will be present and available when you come in. The responsibility of each team member will be more detailed later in this handbook.

Our marketing team is responsible for the advertisement of your property while it is on the market for rent. We advertise on many popular websites, military housing, relocation companies, and to real estate agents. We have direct control over advertising on our website, craigslist, and military housing. Many of the other popular sites that promote the home do not update information as quickly as we would like. We have found that even though this is sometimes frustrating, the activity that is generated from these sites is far more beneficial in getting the home rented.

Our accounting department is very busy processing invoices, mortgage payments, monthly statements, owner disbursements, and tax form preparation. Your account will be handled within the specifications you give to us on your “account options worksheet”.

Company Blog

California can be very complicated when it comes to landlord/tenant law. Laws are constantly changing; some can be confusing and some will vary by area or length of time a tenant has been in place. From time to time we will publish blog posts to inform you of some of the bigger changes in the law. In addition to changes in the law, we will provide some general information that may be of interest.

Staff

Our office consists of 25 full time employees and 4 part time employees. During our busy season, we hire additional staff to accommodate the increased activity.

Once your property has been rented and a tenant is in place, your management team will be in charge of all aspects of managing your home. Each of the three members of your management team has specific tasks that they are responsible for. They also work in a team environment to provide support when needed. The following are each team member’s specific tasks:

Senior Property Manager: The senior property manager is the supervisor of the team, and is responsible for highly sensitive and legal issues. Some specific tasks include rent collections, pre-move out walk throughs, move out walk throughs, property condition research, deposit recommendations, disputes, court preparation, court appearance and case presentation, and evictions. Due to the nature of this position, a large percentage of their job is conducted outside of the office.

Property Manager: Your property manager is primarily in the office. Some of their specific tasks include, application processing, lease preparation, HOA violations, handling routine problems/disputes, weekly marketing updates, and preparing move in packets for new tenants. This position also provides support to the Senior Property Manager while they are out of the office.

Assistant Property Manager: Your assistant property manager is typically in the office. Their primary task is to handle maintenance. They will take all incoming maintenance requests and follow established procedures. They are responsible for following up with tenants and vendors to ensure that work has been completed in a timely manner. They also handle large scale projects like floods and coordinate the different vendors that are needed in addition to working with insurance companies.

Email

With the overwhelming majority of individuals that have smart phones, we have found that many of our clients prefer email communication. Since most people have their phones with them, they have access to their email even though they may not be in a position to have a phone conversation. Communications with our clients will vary depending on the reason for contact. General questions that do not require your immediate attention may come in the form of an email or a message left on your home phone number. For more pressing matters such as applications or time sensitive issues; we will call you on the numbers you provide to us. We may also send an email just to cover all ways of communication. If you have a preference on how you would like to be contacted for all matters, we can set your profile to indicate your preference. Please be sure to let your property manager know.