Residential property management

1. Confirm first whether you may lawfully do this work for a fee in your jurisdiction. In British Columbia, rental property management is licensed under the Real Estate Services Act; in Ontario, condominium management is licensed by the CMRAO; Alberta licenses property management through RECA. Taking a fee unlicensed is an offence and voids your agreements.
2. Sign a written management agreement that states the fee basis, the term, what authority you have to spend without asking, the notice to terminate, who holds the deposits, and who insures what.
3. Set the spending authority as a dollar limit per incident in writing. Without it, every leaking tap is a phone call and every emergency is a dispute.
4. Inspect and document the property before taking it on: photographs and video of every room, appliance models and ages, the state of the roof and mechanicals, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and anything already broken.
5. Collect the compliance pack: proof of ownership, mortgage details where relevant, insurance certificate naming you as required, existing tenancy agreements, deposit records and the rent history.
6. Verify the existing deposits actually exist and are properly held. Inheriting a portfolio means inheriting its deposit liabilities, and discovering a missing deposit after you take over makes it your problem.

1. Hold client money in a designated trust account, separate from the company's own funds. Never pay an operating expense from trust, and never cover a trust shortfall with operating money without recording exactly what happened and why.
2. Keep a ledger per owner and per property so you can say, at any moment, whose money is in the account and how much.
3. Reconcile the trust account monthly — bank balance to the sum of the individual ledgers — and have someone other than the person who posts the entries review the reconciliation.
4. Handle security deposits exactly as the province requires, including any obligation to pay interest and the deadlines for returning or claiming against a deposit. These deadlines are short and strict.
5. Never let a trust ledger go negative. A property whose expenses exceed its cash calls for the owner's money, not another owner's.
6. Retain trust records for the full period the regulator requires, and expect to produce them on demand in a licensed jurisdiction.

1. Price the unit from current comparable listings, not from last year's rent, and know your province's rules on rent increases for the existing tenancy — they are frequently capped and procedurally strict.
2. Advertise with accurate photographs and a complete description, and screen every applicant the same way with the same criteria, written down in advance.
3. Screen on what is lawful and relevant: income verification, employment, references, previous tenancy and credit where permitted. Human rights law prohibits discrimination on protected grounds, and a screening process that is not identical for everyone is where that becomes a complaint.
4. Use the standard tenancy agreement your province requires or provides, and give the tenant the information package the province mandates.
5. Collect the deposit as the province permits — the amount, what it may be called and what it may be used for are all regulated — and record it into trust immediately.
6. Do a joint move-in inspection with a signed condition report and photographs. Without one, a deposit deduction at the end is nearly impossible to sustain.

1. Take every request in writing through one channel and acknowledge it the same day. Verbal maintenance requests are the root of most tenancy disputes about repair.
2. Triage into emergency — no heat, no water, flood, fire, gas, no power, a security failure — same-week, and scheduled. Publish the emergency definition and a number that is answered at night.
3. Act on anything affecting health, safety or habitability immediately and document the times. Provincial law imposes a repair duty, and the record of when you acted is the defence.
4. Serve proper notice before entry, in the form and timeframe the province requires. Entering without notice is the most common unforced error in this business.
5. Use vendors who are licensed, insured and under a written rate schedule, with proof of both on file and renewed. Verify the trade licence for licensed work: your owner will own the consequences of unlicensed work.
6. Code every invoice to the property and the category at entry, so the owner statement explains itself and the year-end is not an archaeology project.

1. Collect by pre-authorised debit or electronic transfer wherever possible; cash and cheques create reconciliation and dispute problems out of proportion to their convenience.
2. Run arrears the day after rent is due, every month, without exception. Consistency is what keeps arrears small.
3. Follow the statutory process exactly: the correct notice, on the correct form, with the correct number of days, served the way the province permits. A defective notice is dismissed and you start again, weeks later.
4. Keep a complete communication record — dates, methods, what was said, what was agreed. The tribunal decides on evidence, and the party with the file usually prevails.
5. Offer a written repayment plan early where the tenant is engaging; it recovers more money than an eviction does, and faster.
6. File at the tribunal when the process requires it and attend prepared, with the ledger, the agreement, the notices and the proof of service. Never attempt to force a tenant out any other way — self-help eviction is unlawful and expensive.

1. Send a monthly statement on a fixed date: income, expenses with invoices attached, the management fee itemised, arrears and the cash held. Predictability is the product.
2. Disburse owner funds on a published schedule and hold the reserve the agreement specifies, not more.
3. Report problems before the owner hears about them elsewhere. Owners leave over surprises, not over costs.
4. Do an annual property review: condition, planned capital work, rent against market, and a recommendation with numbers.
5. Provide the year-end package the owner's accountant needs, in a format they can use, without being chased for it.
6. Review your own portfolio annually and release the properties that cost more to manage than they pay — distant single units and absent owners with no reserve are the usual candidates.

Licences and registrations

• Property management licence, where the activity is licensed — British Columbia Financial Services Authority under the Real Estate Services Act; RECA in Alberta; other provinces vary
  In British Columbia, providing rental property management services for another for a fee requires licensing under the Real Estate Services Act, with trust accounting and record-keeping obligations attached. Determine your own province's position before taking a fee — unlicensed practice is an offence and makes your agreements unenforceable.
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• Condominium or strata management licence — The Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario, and provincial equivalents
  A separate licensed activity from rental management, with its own education requirements. Managing a condominium corporation is not something a rental manager may simply add.
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• Compliance with provincial residential tenancy legislation — The provincial tenancy branch or tribunal — the Residential Tenancy Branch in British Columbia, the Landlord and Tenant Board in Ontario
  Not a licence but the operating law: notice periods, prescribed forms, entry rules, deposit handling, rent increase limits and the eviction process. Procedure is strict and a defect restarts the process.
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• Human rights compliance in tenant selection — Federal and provincial human rights commissions
  Tenant screening is where discrimination complaints arise. Identical, written, documented criteria applied to everyone is both the fair practice and the defence.
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• Municipal business licence, and rental or short-term rental licensing where it exists — The municipality
  Many municipalities now licence rental units themselves, with inspection regimes, and most regulate short-term rental separately and strictly. Check per municipality, per property.
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• Privacy obligations — Federal and provincial privacy commissioners
  You hold identity documents, credit reports and income records for applicants and tenants. Collect only what you need, keep it secure, and have a retention and destruction schedule.
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Insurance

• Errors and omissions (professional liability) for the management firm — The claims in this business are advice and administration failures: a defective notice, a missed deadline, a mishandled deposit, a bad screening decision. General liability does not answer for any of them, and in licensed provinces E&O may be a condition of the licence.6
• Fidelity bond or crime cover — You hold other people's money. This cover answers for employee theft, which is exactly the risk trust accounting controls are designed to prevent and occasionally fail to.6
• Commercial general liability — Third-party injury and property damage arising from your operations, including at properties you manage and visit.6
• Confirmation of each owner's own policy, with the right coverage and your interest noted — An owner insuring a tenanted property on a homeowner's policy is under-insured and may be uncovered entirely. Verifying the landlord policy annually protects the owner and, in practice, protects you from the argument afterwards.6
• Cyber liability — This business holds tenant identity documents and moves money by electronic transfer. Payment-redirection fraud — a convincing email changing an owner's deposit details — is the characteristic loss, and it is specifically what this cover and a call-back verification rule address.6