Property Manager Signed Lease??

[NSRCT]

We are having a new tenant move into our property in Virginia. We use a property manager with an in-house realtor to find tenants and manage the property as we are out of state. Unlike previous leases, this time instead of forwarding us the lease to sign, someone from the property manager's staff signed the lease under "landlord". My husband and I have signed all previous leases, and now the PM states that this is fine going forward. We disagree and don't feel comfortable with some random clerical worker's name on the contract instead of our own. Could someone please give me some insight into this? Is it time to contact a lawyer?

[bovie]

Who works for whom here?

Tell them how you would like it done. Simple as that.

[White.Beard.Doc]

Some of our RE portfolio gets managed in this way. We have an outstanding property management company, and the tenants sign the leases along with the property manager. It has been working quite well for us.

For other properties, we sign the leases. This has also worked well. If your property manager is high quality and they have an established track record, I would be ok with them signing. However, if an issue comes up such as eviction, do they have your trust to manage this type of difficult situation well?

[NSRCT]

Thanks to everyone for your responses. We do not have a good relationship with the manager and were planning to fire him as soon as the new tenant is in place. What would happen to the contract in that instance--would it revert back to us? Or would we need to sign a new lease with the tenant?

[MPMD]

Thanks to everyone for your responses. We do not have a good relationship with the manager and were planning to fire him as soon as the new tenant is in place. What would happen to the contract in that instance--would it revert back to us? Or would we need to sign a new lease with the tenant?

i cannot imagine that the contract would be invalidated if you fired a particular employee.

i would just look at the language on the contract, is it between you and the tenant or the PM and the tenant?

caveat: IANAL

[pit.alumni]

I use a property manager for almost all of my rentals. I have an established relationship with them that goes back 13 years. The leases they use are specifically designed for Brokers and utilized by Realtors. They always sign, but it is not a random person in the office, it is the Broker that owns the office. There is not a place for the owner to sign and I have never signed the lease unless I am managing myself.