Property Manager Keeping Lease Confidential

[lstanley]

Should Alberta property mangers keep leases confidential from the owners of the property? My property manager says he should because it is a contract between his company and the tenant and my name is not on the lease.

 

[LAndersen]

I disagree. It is your property! I don't see why they should keep it confidential. Ask them why they won't give you a copy.

 

[dplummer]

Why is the lease with your Property Managers company & not you? Should your manager not just facilitate the transaction between you & YOUR tenant?



Doug

 

[moparcanuck]

I don't think that it should be confidential. In fact, you may need a copy if you're trying to get another mortgage and have to prove the rent from that lease.

 

[RedlineBrett]

It depends. What's in your management contract? Does it stiplulate that you have access to the managers prorietary documents?



My lease is 6 pages long and has been worked over countless times and reviewed by several lawyers. I have a lot invested in it.



I'm not exactly crazy about handing over my intellectual property to someone I don't trust implicitly. Maybe you're not there with your manager.



There could be other reasons - perhaps they don't have a copy of the lease or perhaps its expired and they don't want to show you for fear of looking bad. Ask them what they stand to lose by showing you the lease and hopefully that will give you the real reason they aren't providing it.



The post above that speaks about financing requirements is valid. Perhaps if you told the management company that your lender requires a lease to verify income it would seem more genuine than you probing the management company.

 

[lstanley]

Thank you all for your helpful comments. Initially, my property managers didn't want to give me copies of the leases because they said there was a confidentiality issue since it is a contract between them, as the property managers, and the tenants. They then got the ok from the tenants and sent me copies, which were fine. I need them not only for my own records but for proof of income for lenders. Up until recently I have managed my own properties; I have only been using this management company for a few months. So far they have been very good, but I just wanted to get another opinion on this matter before I discuss it with them further. Thank you so much for your asssitance on this matter

 

[invst4profit]

I have never heard of a lease existing between a tenant and a management company. Admittedly I do not have much knowledge of management companies.

I would guess that as the owner of the property, if the lease is with the management company, you would have no authority to select or evict tenants. The tenants would not even owe the owner any rent unless the lease includes some form of language that actually protects the rights of the owner.

You had best hope that you do not have to fire the management company or you would not hold any valid leases with your tenants.

Interesting situation that I personally would not be comfortable with.

 

[tonyLeBlanc]

Here in New Brunswick, we have a provincial body called the Office of the Rentalsman. This government body provides a standard lease agreement that most landlords use. One of the major reasons for this is that we must register all security deposits with the rentalsman. In order to make claims again deposits, you must have a standard lease agreement in place. With that being said, these leases are obviously not proprietary and we have no problems giving them to our owners.



We are constantly asked by owners for copies of leases therefore we put these documents on our website so that our owners can download them at their own leisure. If your working with an active owner/investor, banks will ask to see these leases therefore we like to make them easy to access.

 

[RandyDalton]

Hi,



As a property manager out here in Ontario I must say that all my leases are between the tenant and the respective property owners. I am but an agent signing the lease on their behalf. Upon tenanting we put together a tenancy package for the owner and mail it out to them including the initial application, lease, inspection report, post-dated cheque, and newly coded keys.



A lot of good points are brought up here. The most important ones are the bank and firing your PM. I would not move forward with this PM in future without a full understanding of what would be done if the tenants do not agree.