Property Manager Vs. Owner

Question: Our friends are the owners of a property they said we could rent, but the property manager is making things difficult. Don’t owners have the final say?

I have a question about property managers. My husband and I are friends with my parents' neighbors, who this past summer put their house on the market, which has not sold yet. We talked to them about renting their house out until spring, when we start to build our house. The owners of the house said that they were going through a property manager, and said that they would rent out the house to us, and go ahead and give our present landlord the thirty day notice that he would need, and everything else could be set up with the property manager, well that was two weeks ago. The property manager called me up this morning and said that I need to call up my present landlord and tell them we need to take back our notice that we gave them two weeks ago. I asked why we had to do this he said that we haven't even filled out an application, or have a background check done yet, or credit check, and said that there is always a chance we were not going to move in, I tried to tell him that the owner had previously told us we were definitely moving in we just had to do the paper work with him. Now the question I have is, can the property manager do this, doesn't the owner have the right to say who he wants renting his property, or is all his rights given up when he signs a contract with the property manager, seems to me that the manager is working for the owner, and the owner should have the final say so. We have a meeting with the owners and the property manager tomorrow, in which the property manager told me today on the phone that he was going to start to run the show in that meeting. Is there anyway someone could let me know before tomorrow, the meeting is at three, I just want to get some idea of what my rights are before I walk in there, Thanks so much.

Answer: I assume the owners still have the right to overrule the property manager and let you rent the house. The owners may have signed a contract saying that the property manager has the right to make such decisions; however, I would think that the property manager would defer to the owners. Again, not knowing the situation, the owners may be hiding behind the manager to keep from being responsible. Also, I have run into some property managers with pretty big egos that say my way or the highway. In any event you are going to have to deal with the property manager while you live at the home, so keep relations as good as possible.

Attorney: Mark Miller