Property Managers: directory of firms

There is no Canada-wide property management licence, and the differences between provinces are real rather than technical. Before you sign a management agreement, establish which category your arrangement falls into and, where a licence is required, verify it on the regulator's register.

Residential tenancies are provincial law, and a competent manager is really someone who applies that law correctly and on time. Notices have prescribed forms and notice periods, rent increases have rules, and ending a tenancy almost always runs through a tribunal rather than through the landlord acting alone. Mistakes here are expensive: an application dismissed for a defective notice sends an owner back to the start.

Each province has its own forum. Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board resolves disputes between landlords and tenants and ends tenancies under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006. British Columbia's Residential Tenancy Branch administers the Residential Tenancy Act and the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act and runs dispute resolution hearings. Alberta's Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service is a quasi-judicial tribunal deciding disputes under the Residential Tenancies Act without going to court. In Quebec, the Tribunal administratif du logement decides matters including rent fixing, rent increases, repairs, lease modifications and repossession.

Ask a prospective manager which tribunal they appear at, how often, and who attends: the person who prepared the evidence, or a junior sent with a folder.

Keeping a rental in a good state of repair is a legal obligation, not a service level the owner chooses, and provincial tenancy law and municipal property standards both bear on it. A manager's value shows in how repairs are triaged: what is an emergency requiring immediate attendance, what is scheduled, and what is deferred with a record of the decision.

Agree in advance how entry to occupied units is handled, since notice requirements for entry are set by provincial law and getting them wrong undermines an otherwise good case at a tribunal. Ask how after-hours calls are answered, which trades are on call, and how invoices are approved and documented.

Self-managing keeps the management fee and gives an owner direct knowledge of their property and tenants. It works best for someone living nearby, with one or two units, the time to answer calls, and the patience to learn the notice forms and deadlines their province requires.

A manager earns their keep when distance, unit count or complexity makes that impractical, or when an owner wants the tenancy handled by someone who deals with the tribunal routinely. The trade-off is a cost and a loss of direct control, so the management agreement should say exactly what decisions remain yours. Remember that in some provinces paying someone else to manage a rental means paying a licensed person, so an unlicensed arrangement can put an owner in a difficult position.