Can Property Manager make changes to lease?

[Eric Black]

We live in California and have a rental property in the Atlanta area. We recently decided that we are going to sell the property and emailed the PM to let them know. They wrote back and informed us that if we terminate the lease early that we owe the tenant the amount equal to two months rent!

We went back and looked at the original lease agreement that we had signed and there was nothing in that lease stating that we could not terminate the lease early. We would have to give the tenant 60 days notice, which is still the case, but nothing about having to pay the tenant an early termination fee.

We found out that this clause was added to the lease at the time that the tenant renewed. The only item we had discussed with the PM was regarding the rent amount.

Is a PM allowed to make major changes to the lease agreement like this without our knowledge or consent? Do we have any legal recourse or can we demand that the PM company pay the fee since we were never made aware of it? 

Thanks for your input.

Eric

[Phillip Smith]

@Eric Black

Without seeing your contract, I would venture to say that by signing a contract with your PM company, it gave them the authority to act on your behalf in regard to listing, renting and signing contracts with tenants. On occasion, I have seen where owners that want to switch to another PM company give their notice to leave the PM. The PM will quickly sign a renewal with the tenant for another year, 5 months ahead of time. Then you can't switch without penalty until that 2nd renewal is completed (17 months).

You will need email proof of anything you requested them not to do. If you did not ask them specifically to not add the clause into the tenant lease, it's fair game.

Are you asking PM to give tenant 60-day notice to be out before his lease expires?