How to Fire Your Property Manager in Indiana

A step-by-step guide for Indiana landlords switching property managers, covering broker trust accounts, what to collect, moving tenant deposits under the 45-day rule and who may manage rentals for pay.

Last updated September 23, 2026

Statements that never add up. Repairs that sit for weeks. A deposit nobody can account for. Most Indiana landlords wait a year too long to make the call.

Indiana does not give you a statutory handover deadline the way some states do. Your leverage comes from your management agreement and from the trust account rules that bind every licensed broker in the state. Here is how to make the switch without losing a deposit, a tenant or a month of rent.

Step 1. Read your management agreement

Your contract decides how you exit, and Indiana law sets no minimum or maximum notice period for ending one. Look for four things.

Notice period. Thirty days' written notice is common. Some agreements want 60 or 90.
Termination fee. Some charge one, some do not.
Leasing fee clawbacks. Check what you owe for tenants the manager placed.
Who "owns" the tenant relationship. Some agreements try to charge you a fee for keeping a tenant they found.

If the manager broke the agreement, by ignoring repairs or mishandling your money, you may be able to end it sooner. That is a question for an Indiana attorney.

Step 2. Send written notice

Put it in writing, by email and by whatever method the agreement names. State the end date, ask for a full handover by that date, and list what you expect back (see Step 4).

Keep the tone flat and factual. You want your records and your money, not an argument.

Ask for one thing many owners forget. Have the manager send each tenant written notice that the management relationship has ended. That notice is what releases the manager from liability for the tenants' security deposits under Ind. Code § 32-31-3-19, and it puts the handover on the record with the people who matter.

Step 3. Know the trust account rules

A licensed Indiana broker company has to keep all funds belonging to others in a separate trust account. Your rent collections, your tenants' deposits and anything else held for you cannot be mixed with the company's own money, and the company has to keep records showing the amount held for each beneficiary. Interest earned on those funds belongs to the person the money belongs to, not the broker (Ind. Code § 25-34.1-4-5).

That section covers the worst case too. If the sole proprietor dies, the company dissolves, or the license expires or is revoked, the Indiana Real Estate Commission takes custody of each trust account and can appoint a successor trustee to sort out who gets what.

There is no statutory 30-day handover clock in Indiana. The deadline in your contract is the deadline you have. Put a date in your notice letter and hold to it.

If money or records do not come back, file a complaint with the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency for the Real Estate Commission. Complaints against licensees are investigated and prosecuted through the Attorney General's licensing enforcement work.

Step 4. Collect everything

Ask for all of this before the end date.

Security deposits for every tenant, with the exact amount held for each one
The trust account ledger showing rents collected, fees taken and the balance owed to you
Signed leases, renewals and addenda
Any move-in condition reports the tenants signed
Tenant contact details and full payment history
Open maintenance requests, vendor contacts, invoices and warranties
Keys, fobs, garage remotes and codes
Year-to-date income and expense reports for your taxes

The payment history matters more in Indiana than landlords expect. If you end up filing for possession, you are proving the arrears yourself at the damages hearing.

Step 5. Move the security deposits

Indiana does not require an owner to hold tenant deposits in escrow or pay interest on them. Once the money leaves the broker's trust account it can sit in your own account legally. Open a separate one anyway, and keep the per-tenant amounts written down. You will need those exact figures later.

Three deposit rules take over the moment you are self-managing.

The 45-day clock is yours now. When a tenancy ends, you have 45 days from termination to return the deposit with an itemised written notice of every deduction (§ 32-31-3-12) and an itemised list of damages claimed with estimated repair costs (§ 32-31-3-14).

Missing that notice costs you the whole deposit. No damage notice counts as your agreement that no damages are owed, and the full amount goes straight back (§ 32-31-3-15), plus the tenant's attorney fees and court costs (§ 32-31-3-16).

A deposit covers four things only. Damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, unpaid rent, unpaid utility or sewer charges, and last month's rent where both sides agreed in writing (§ 32-31-3-13).

If you are buying into the properties rather than already owning them, note that a seller stays liable for the deposit for a year until the buyer tells the tenant in writing they have assumed it and the money actually transfers (§ 32-31-3-19).

Step 6. Tell your tenants

Tenants care about three things. Where to pay rent, who to call for repairs, and whether their deposit is safe. Send one clear message covering all three, dated, with the day the change takes effect.

Indiana adds a hard requirement here. You have to give each tenant in writing the name and address of a person living in Indiana who manages the unit, and a person living in Indiana who can accept service of process and notices for the owner (§ 32-31-3-18). Your old manager filled those slots. Now you do, or your new manager does.

Skip it and you become the agent for service of process for every landlord of that unit, and you owe the tenant whatever it reasonably cost them to find out who you are.

Step 7. Take over the day to day

Line up vendors, set up rent collection, and get a maintenance line that picks up at 2am. Put your entry notice practice in writing too. Indiana requires reasonable written or oral notice before you enter and entry at reasonable times, with no hour count in the statute (§ 32-31-5-6). Twenty-four hours in writing keeps you clean.

This step is where most landlords end up back where they started, holding a phone that never stops ringing.

Who can manage property for pay in Indiana

Nobody may sell, buy, trade, exchange, option, lease, rent, manage, list or appraise real estate for consideration in Indiana without a real estate license (Ind. Code § 25-34.1-3-2). Leasing, renting and managing are named in the statute, so a paid third-party manager needs a license. A licensed broker works under a managing broker and a broker company (§ 25-34.1-1-2).

Managing your own property is exempt. An owner handling their own real estate falls inside the exemption list in § 25-34.1-3-2. Short-term lodging of under 30 days, court-appointed fiduciaries and acts that amount to the practice of law sit outside the license requirement as well.

Acting as a broker without a license is a Class A infraction, each transaction counts as a separate offence, and an unlicensed person cannot sue to collect the fees they charged (§ 25-34.1-6-2). Before you hire a replacement, check the license on the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency site.

Your switching checklist

Read the agreement for notice, fees and clawbacks
Send written notice with a firm end date
Have the manager notify tenants in writing that the relationship ended
Collect deposits, trust ledgers, leases, payment histories and keys
Move the deposits and write down the per-tenant amounts
Send tenants the § 32-31-3-18 manager and service-agent disclosure
Put the 45-day deposit deadline in your calendar for every unit

Switch to Taz

Taz is an AI property manager built for landlords who have been let down before. It answers tenants day and night, routes repairs to vendors, sends rent reminders and keeps every record in one place, for a flat monthly price per door instead of a cut of your rent. See how Taz works.

Where this guide says a state has no rule on something, that means we found no statute setting one, which is not the same as none existing. Local ordinances and court practice can add requirements. Confirm anything you plan to rely on.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Your management agreement and your specific facts matter. Talk to an Indiana attorney before ending a contract. Last checked September 2026.