How to Fire Your Property Manager in Kentucky

A step-by-step guide for Kentucky landlords switching property managers, covering broker escrow accounts, the 60-day final accounting, tenant deposits and what to collect before you cut ties.

Last updated September 23, 2026

Repairs that never happen, a statement that never balances, a tenant who has your cell number before your manager returns a call. Most landlords wait months too long.

Kentucky gives you two useful levers. Your manager is almost certainly a licensed broker, and brokers here answer to the Kentucky Real Estate Commission for the money and the records they hold on your behalf.

Here is how to make the switch without losing a deposit, a tenant or a month of rent.

Step 1. Read your management agreement

Kentucky requires one in writing. A principal broker cannot engage in property management without a current written property management agreement, and the regulation spells out what it has to contain (201 KAR 11:121, Section 10).

That means the answers you need are in the document. Look for four things.

Term and renewal. The agreement has to state its beginning and ending dates and how it renews.
Notice period. Thirty days' written notice is common. Your contract controls.
Compensation. How the fee is calculated, and anything owed on tenants the manager placed.
Expense authority. The conditions under which the manager may spend your money.

If the manager broke the agreement, for example by ignoring repairs or mishandling funds, you may be able to end it sooner. That is a question for a Kentucky attorney.

Step 2. Send written notice

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

Keep it flat and factual. You want your money and your files, not a fight.

Step 3. Know the accounting and escrow rules

A final accounting is due within 60 days. After the management agreement ends, the principal broker has to send you a final accounting covering every transaction that happened after the last monthly statement (201 KAR 11:121, Section 10).

Monthly accountings were due all along. The same section requires an accounting of transactions by unit on a schedule set in your agreement. If those stopped arriving, say so in writing.

Your money sits in a regulated account. A principal broker has to keep an escrow account separate from personal and office accounts, holding contract deposits and money belonging to others, deposited without unreasonable delay, at a Kentucky bank identified to the Commission. Property management funds go in a separate management account, or the escrow records have to flag them as property management funds (KRS 324.111).

There is no fixed handover deadline. Kentucky sets no hard 30-day rule for returning records and funds the way Georgia does. What it does have is teeth. Failing to account for or remit money belonging to others within a reasonable time is grounds for discipline, and so is refusing on demand to furnish copies of a document you signed (KRS 324.160(4)). Penalties run to fines, probation, suspension and revocation.

If your money or your files are still missing after the termination date, file a complaint with the Kentucky Real Estate Commission and cite those provisions.

Step 4. Collect everything

Brokers have to keep property management agreements, leases, monthly statements, owner ledgers, unit ledgers, invoices, receipts and bank statements for five years (201 KAR 11:121, Section 10). Every item below exists. Ask for all of it before the end date.

Security deposits for each tenant, with the amount held per unit
Owner ledger and unit ledgers showing rent collected, fees taken and what is still owed to you
Bank statements for the escrow or management account touching your property
Signed leases, renewals and addenda
Move-in and move-out damage listings each tenant signed
Tenant contact details and payment history
Open work orders, vendor contacts, invoices and warranties
Keys, fobs, garage remotes and door codes
Year-to-date income and expense reports for your taxes

Step 5. Move the security deposits

Your manager has been holding tenant deposits in the brokerage escrow account, and depositing them there within three business days of receipt (201 KAR 11:121, Section 10). Once the money moves to you, it needs a proper home.

In a city or county that adopted the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, deposits go into an account used only for that purpose at a regulated bank, and each tenant has to be told the location of the account and its number (KRS 383.580(1)). A new account means a new written notice to every tenant.

Get the signed move-in damage listings in the handover. Without them you lose the right to retain any part of a deposit at move-out (KRS 383.580(4)), and a manager's filing cabinet is the only place those forms exist.

Step 6. Tell your tenants

Tenants want three answers. Where to pay rent, who to call for repairs, and whether their deposit is safe. Send one dated message covering all three, with the day the change takes effect and the new deposit account details.

Step 7. Take over the day to day

Line up vendors, set up rent collection, and put a maintenance line in place that answers at 2am. This is the step that sends landlords straight back to the manager they just fired.

Who can manage property for pay in Kentucky

Property management means running real property for others for a fee, including leasing, collecting rent, paying notes and mortgages, coordinating maintenance, and remitting funds and accounting statements to the owner (KRS 324.010(9)). Doing that for someone else takes a Kentucky real estate license (KRS 324.020).

Managing your own rentals does not. The licensing chapter exempts an owner or lessor acting on property they own or lease, in the regular course of managing that property and the investment in it, along with their regular employees (KRS 324.030(1)).

So self-managing is squarely legal. If you hire a replacement instead, check the license on the Kentucky Real Estate Commission site first.

Your switching checklist

Read the agreement for term, notice and fees
Send written notice with a firm end date
Demand the final accounting inside 60 days
Collect ledgers, bank statements, leases, damage listings and keys
Move deposits into a separate deposit account and notify each tenant in writing
Tell tenants where to pay and who to call
File a Commission complaint if funds or records do not arrive

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, chases rent 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 own facts matter. Talk to a Kentucky attorney before ending a contract. Last checked September 2026.