I know our lease agreement specifically states that if a tenant reports a maintenance issue that ends up not being an issue at all it's the tenant's responsibility.  

thethat is really weird language but the way I read that is if rent is $1550.

However, he asked me to sign a one-year Exclusive Right to Represent agreement, as presented to him by his brokerage.His interpretation is that it applies only when he materially assists me, but I think the boilerplate brokerage language he was given reads much more broadly:"If during the term of this Agreement Buyer enters into a contract for the purchase of Property through the services or efforts of the Broker or Buyer’s Brokerage Firm, or by or through any other persons during the term of this Agreement" (emphasis mine).My concern is that, under my interpretation, if a fellow real estate investor wants to unload a property or if I get pointed to an opportunity by a former agent, colleague, or friend, this agreement could create an obstacle to moving forward with the deal.In the end, I didn’t sign.

One last follow-up question.On one of the IRS forms, I found the language pasted below.

This simply means you have language in your lease that states the landlord is responsible for paying utilities up to a certain $ amount (let's say $100 for the sake of argument).

She's not going to have any leg to stand on in court if you get that far unless there's some explicit language prohibiting the owner from assigning responsibilities to another legally authorized party, and I'm guessing there isn't if another PM company was maintaining the lease and provisions - and the fact that the tenant was voluntarily working with the other PM confirms the acceptance of an authorized agent even if it's not explicitly stated, the same way if you accept rent from a tenant after a lease expires you imply acceptance of the lease terms continuing (which is why you should always have a holdover provision). 

It does seem to use a little bit of vague language I guess when it comes to "can it be easily/cheaply done".  

Start here...have a solid lease with an Addendum of dealbreakers/rules that are written in plain everyday language. 

And it would be nice to have the disclosure language spelled out.

Specific technical issue that triggered this post.