Owner Responsibilities Over and Above Property Manager

[Howard Hendler]

Hello, 

I'm interested in understanding the responsibilities of a property owner that would not be handled by a property manager (or that would be a la carte items). For example, are the items below the responsibility of the manager, owner, or both? 

• Sourcing insurance and handling claims 
• Legal suits such as ADA, slip and fall, environmental, etc. 
• Paying a mortgage, lender reporting, compliance with loan docs
• Cash distributions to investors

What other tasks does a property owner have over and above a property manager's responsibilities?

Thanks

[Michael Albaum]

Hi Howard, from my experience everything on your list would be the responsibility of the owner and not the property manager. All the things associated with running and maintaining a rental are the responsibility of the property manager, i.e. maintenance, placing tenants, collecting rents, paying utilities. All the things associated with owning a rental property, are the responsibility of the owner. 

Now, if your property manager was open to performing those other tasks, great! But frankly I wouldn't trust a PM to do any of those things on my behalf, because if they get screwed up for any reason, there can be dire consequences, such as getting the home repo'ed. That's why most PMs steer clear of those critical ownership responsibilities.