Abrupt Shutdown Of Property Management Firm Triggers Police Probe Into Possible Embezzlement; Tenants & Landlords Left In Lurch

In Montpelier, Vermont, The Times Argus reports:

• Many tenants, landlords and contractors who worked with a Montpelier property management company under police investigation said Tuesday they saw problems going back as far as eight months ago. A series of interviews and e-mails received this week has revealed that Parkside Property Management, which oversaw and managed scores of properties in Vermont and New Hampshire that included low- to moderate-income tenants on fixed incomes and sometimes disability payments, stopped paying bills, wrote checks that bounced, neglected basic maintenance on many of its properties and became increasingly more difficult to reach – by phone, e-mail or in person – up until it closed its doors abruptly fewer than two weeks ago.

• Members of the local law enforcement community are trying to determine why the four-year-old company closed, and who is responsible for a crisis that has put many absentee landlords, some located as far away as South Carolina, Texas and Florida, into the hot seat to find alternate means of collecting rents and tending to tenants.

• Montpelier police have opened an embezzlement investigation, and have named a suspect employed at Parkside, James Pumpelly of Barre. Police have declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation. However, no arrests have been made, and so far no charges have been filed.

For more, see Montpelier property management firm, under probe by police, had extensive problems.