Are You Actually Charging the Fees You Agreed To? | K8 Solutions

By Kate Barnett, Founder of K8 Solutions | PropertyMe Partner

KEY TAKEAWAYS

- Most agencies have fees in their management agreements that are simply not being charged

- The cause is almost always operational, not intentional

- A fee review typically takes a few hours and almost always finds money that already belongs to the agency

- The fix is straightforward once the gaps are visible

It's one of those things nobody really talks about in property management. Not in team meetings, not at industry events, and definitely not in the middle of a busy disbursement week. But it's happening in agencies all across the country, quietly, consistently, and at real cost.

Agencies are not charging the fees they agreed to in their own management agreements.

I've seen it enough times now that it no longer surprises me. But the dollar figures still do.

In recent weeks I worked across three different property management agencies. Different businesses, different locations, different team sizes. But the same problem showed up in all three.

Agency One had approximately $12,350 leaving the business every single year in fees that simply were not being charged. Agency Two had two properties that had never been invoiced for management fees, not once, and for one of those properties it had been that way for over three years, representing approximately $8,500 in lost revenue. Agency Three had $7,600 in missed fees sitting right inside their system, uncollected because no one had ever gone looking.

Close to $28,450 across three agencies. None of them knew it was happening.

HOW DOES THIS EVEN HAPPEN?

This is usually the first question people ask. And the honest answer is that it happens because property management is busy, and fee setup is rarely the thing that feels urgent. Here are the most common reasons I see:

- A new management gets onboarded in a rush and the fee schedule never gets cross-checked against the agreement

- A fee gets waived once as a goodwill gesture and accidentally stays switched off permanently

- Fee triggers don't get allocated correctly from the start

- A template gets duplicated and carried across with the wrong settings

- Disbursements run automatically so nobody notices the discrepancy until someone actually looks

This isn't about poor intentions or careless staff. It happens in well-run businesses with capable teams. It happens when people are stretched and the operational checks that would catch these things simply aren't in place.

The problem isn't the people. It's the absence of a process.

WHERE PROPERTYME COMES IN

I work with a lot of agencies that run their property management operations on PropertyMe, and I'm proud to be a PropertyMe Partner. It's a genuinely powerful platform with strong fee configuration capability. But like any software, it only works as well as the setup behind it. Here is what I commonly find:

- Fee triggers that aren't mapped correctly don't generate errors. Fees that are manual get missed and they just don't generate fees

- Old fees configured years ago don't update themselves when your fee schedule changes

- Automation keeps running smoothly so there's no obvious sign that anything is missing

A fee review inside PropertyMe looks at the full picture. What triggers exist, how many there are, whether there are duplicates causing confusion, and whether what's in the system actually reflects what's in your agreements. When those two things don't match, that's where the money is disappearing.

WHAT A FEE REVIEW ACTUALLY INVOLVES

A fee review doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming. Here's how I approach it with clients.

Step 1 - Review the fee setup

What are the triggers? How are they structured? Are there duplicates or gaps? This gives a clear picture of what the system is actually doing, separate from what you think it's doing.

Step 2 - Compare agreements to configuration

Pull the management agreements and sit them alongside what's actually configured in the system. Are there fees in the agreement that were never set up? Fees that have been switched off? Fees applied inconsistently across the portfolio?

Step 3 - Close the gaps and build the process

Fix the discrepancies, then build a simple process for new managements so the fee schedule is confirmed before the first disbursement runs. One-time clean-up. Ongoing structure.

It takes a few hours. It almost always finds money that already belongs to the agency.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE ON PROPERTYME

While I work closely with PropertyMe and know the platform well, the fee compliance issue isn't unique to any one software. I work with agencies across a range of property management platforms and the same problem shows up regardless of the system being used. If your agency runs on different software, the same principles apply:

- Agreements need to match configuration

- Triggers need to be set up correctly

- There needs to be a process in place to catch the gaps before they become thousands of dollars in lost revenue

The software is just the tool. The methodology is what matters.

IS THIS HAPPENING IN YOUR BUSINESS?

Here's a simple way to think about it. When did someone last sit down and compare your management agreements to your fee configuration? Not just glance at a few, but actually work through the portfolio systematically?

If the answer is never, or you're not sure, it's worth finding out. The fees are already agreed. The work is already being done. The revenue should already be flowing. A fee review is about making sure it actually is.

I'm Kate Barnett, founder of K8 Solutions and a PropertyMe Partner based in Adelaide, South Australia. I work with independent property management agencies to build structured, compliant, and efficient operations through my Elev8 Framework. Fee reviews are one of the most common starting points with new clients, and one of the most immediately impactful.

The agreement is already signed. The revenue is already yours. Let's make sure you're actually collecting it.

Visit k8solutions.com.au or reach out directly to find out how a fee review could benefit your agency.

About Kate Barnett

Kate Barnett is the founder of K8 Solutions (k8solutions.com.au) and a licensed SA Land Agent (RLA 264616) with over 19 years of real estate industry experience. As a PropertyMe Partner, she specialises in helping independent property management agencies build compliant, scalable operations. Kate works with agencies across a range of property management platforms and delivers practical, personalised consulting through her Elev8 Framework. Based in Adelaide, South Australia.