Managing your rental
Switch property managers in Ontario without disrupting your tenants: what to check in your agreement, the records to collect, rent and deposits, and the handover.
By the Tenant.ca teamUpdated 4 min read
Owners usually start looking when the manager stops answering or the numbers stop adding up. If several of these sound familiar, it is worth comparing another company's scope and fee:
Your management agreement sets out how it ends: how much notice it needs, whether a fee applies if you end it early, what happens to rent collected after the notice, and how records and keys come back to you. Give any notice in writing, keep a copy, and confirm the date it takes effect.
Do not end the current arrangement on the assumption that a new manager has already accepted the property. Agree the new manager's scope, fee and start date first, so the rental is never without someone responsible for it. Where the agreement or a dispute is unclear, speak to a lawyer before you act.
You remain the landlord, and your tenant's lease, rent and rights stay exactly as they are. Section 12 of the Residential Tenancies Act requires a written tenancy agreement to set out the landlord's legal name and the address for notices; if that address is your outgoing manager's, give your tenant the new one in writing, and tell them where to pay rent from the changeover date.
If you hold a rent deposit, it stays with the tenancy. Section 106 requires the landlord to pay interest on it each year and to apply it only to the last rental period, so get the amount, the date it was paid and each year's interest from your outgoing manager, along with the deposit itself if they hold it.
Ask your outgoing manager for these in writing, transferred through a secure channel:
Pick a handover date just after rent is due, so one manager collects that month's rent and the next one starts clean. For every open repair or payment issue, write down who is responsible before and after the date, so nothing sits in two inboxes with each manager expecting the other to act.
Confirm how the tenant will receive the new payment instructions and how a payment made the old way around the changeover will be reconciled. A tenant who pays by pre-authorized debit or a standing e-Transfer needs time to change it.
One clear message works best: the effective date, the new contact, how to pay rent and how to request repairs, with a way for the tenant to verify the change with you. Keep it to what the tenant needs to do, without any disagreement between you and the outgoing manager.
Tenant.ca takes over occupied rentals without a new tenant search. We review the lease, the rent status, open maintenance requests and your preferred handover date before confirming the scope and fee, then contact your tenant in writing with the new contact, payment and repair details.
Management is $98 per month plus HST for a condo or apartment unit and from $148 per month plus HST for a house; you stay the landlord, every repair estimate comes to you first, and the first 60 days of the agreement are a trial period. We manage in Toronto and the GTA and in Brantford, Chatham, Hamilton, Kitchener, Listowel, London (1265 and 1275 Bentley Drive only), Sarnia, St. Catharines, Tillsonburg, Waterloo, Welland, Windsor and Woodstock.
