Property Management Agreement

A Property Management Agreement is a document used by a property owner to hire a company or person to manage the rental of their property.

Renting out a property can be an incredibly lucrative venture. However, attending to the details of maintaining a rental property, such as finding and vetting tenants, collecting rent, making repairs, and responding to emergencies can involve a prohibitive amount of work. For property owners who wish to rent out their property without taking on these additional responsibilities, they can hire a property manager to provide those services.

The contract helps to make the property manager's responsibilities clear. Not all property managers or management companies perform the same services. For instance, some property managers will take responsibility for the marketing of rental properties while others leave that duty solely to the owners. The contract will reflect exactly what duties the property manager will provide throughout the life of the agreement.

Often, individuals enter into business relationships without having all of the details of the parties' relationship with each other written down. Having a mutual understanding of each party's rights and responsibilities is especially important in property management where the property manager is responsible for attending to the important needs of both the owner and the tenants. By discussing the specifics of the agreement ahead of time, both the property manager and the property owner can make sure that their needs and wishes about the business relationship are known and honored.

This document is used to arrange for a person or company to manage the rental of a property. To arrange for someone to sell a property on another person's behalf, use a Real Estate Agent Agreement instead. This agreement is specifically for the provision of property management services. This website also has a General Purpose Service Agreement that can be used for someone providing a different kind of service.

How to use this document

This document covers all of the important information necessary for an individual or company that provides property management services to enter into a business relationship with a property owner, including the following details:

• Pertinent identifying information for all involved parties
• Description of the property that will be managed, including the address and type of property
• Specifics of the services provided, such as collecting rents, suing tenants on behalf of the owner to collect past due rent from non-paying tenants, maintaining the property, setting rent prices, and finding new tenants
• Amount of compensation the property manager will receive, including late fees and finder's fees

The property manager and the property owner can discuss the terms of the agreement and create and sign the final agreement prior to the work actually beginning. This agreement can also be created after the work has already begun for the purpose of clarifying and formalizing the relationship between the parties and describing the responsibilities of all involved parties.

After inputting the required information, this agreement is printed out and signed by both parties, and then kept on file by both parties for the duration of the agreement as well as for a reasonable period of time thereafter.

Applicable law

All Service Agreements are subject to both federal and state laws that cover general contract principles governing how contracts are created and interpreted by courts. Federal laws may restrict what services can be contracted for (for example, illegal services may not be contracted for) and certain broad categories, like contracting for something that looks more like an employment relationship, but individual state laws may govern the interpretation of the contract in case of a dispute.

For more information about the difference between an independent contractor relationship and an employment relationship, please see the guide What's the Difference Between an Employee and an Independent Contractor?.

How to modify the template

You fill out a form. The document is created before your eyes as you respond to the questions.

At the end, you receive it in Word and PDF formats. You can modify it and reuse it.