How to Fire Your Property Manager in Massachusetts

A step-by-step guide for Massachusetts landlords switching property managers, covering written notice, broker escrow accounts, tenant deposits and deposit interest, and what to collect before you cut ties.

Last updated September 23, 2026

Statements that never reconcile, repairs that never happen, a tenant who has your manager's voicemail memorized. Most landlords wait a year too long to make the call.

Massachusetts adds a wrinkle other states do not. Your manager is probably holding tenant security deposits, and the deposit statute here is brutal about mistakes. A sloppy handover can hand your tenant a claim for three times the deposit. Here is how to make the switch cleanly.

Step 1. Read your management agreement

Your contract sets the exit, not the state. Look for four things.

Notice period. 30 days' written notice is common.
Termination fee. Some agreements charge one, some do not.
Leasing fee clawbacks. Check what you owe for tenants the manager placed.
Who claims the tenant relationship. Some agreements try to bill you if you keep a tenant they found.

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

Step 2. Send written notice

Put it in writing, by email and by whatever method the agreement names. State the end date, demand a full handover by that date, and list what you expect back.

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

Step 3. Know what the license law does and does not give you

Massachusetts has no statute setting a deadline for a broker to hand your files and funds back after you terminate. That deadline lives in your contract. Ask for a date in writing.

What the license law does give you is leverage over the money. Anyone who rents, leases or negotiates leases of real estate for another person for a fee is acting as a broker and needs a license (M.G.L. c. 112 § 87PP, § 87RR). Licensed brokers hold your funds under rules.

All money paid to a broker during a transaction goes straight into a bank escrow account, and the broker is responsible for it (254 CMR 3.00(10)(a)). Brokers keep a copy of every check paid into and out of that escrow account for three years (254 CMR 3.00(10)(b)).

Failing to account for money belonging to others, and commingling client funds with the broker's own, are both grounds for the Board of Registration of Real Estate Brokers and Salespersons to suspend or revoke a license. The board investigates on a verified written complaint from an aggrieved person (M.G.L. c. 112 § 87AAA).

Say that out loud in your notice letter and the ledger tends to arrive faster.

Step 4. Collect everything

Ask for all of it before the end date.

Security deposits for every tenant, unit by unit, with the bank and account number they sat in
Deposit interest records, showing what interest accrued and what was already paid to each tenant
The signed statement of condition each tenant received at move-in, and any corrections the tenant wrote in
Deposit receipts issued to tenants
Last month's rent held in advance, with its interest history
The trust account ledger, rents collected, fees taken, what is owed to you
Signed leases, renewals, addenda and any notices to quit served
Tenant contact details and full payment history
Open maintenance requests, vendor contacts, invoices and warranties
Keys, fobs, garage remotes and door codes
Year-to-date income and expense reports for your taxes

The deposit paperwork matters more than the rest of it combined. If nobody can produce the statement of condition or the original receipt, you are inheriting a defect.

Step 5. Move the security deposits

Massachusetts deposits have to sit in a separate interest-bearing account at a bank located in the commonwealth, held apart from your own creditors (M.G.L. c. 186 § 15B(3)(a)). Open that account before the money moves, not after.

Within 30 days of receiving each deposit, the holder gives the tenant a receipt showing the amount, the bank name and location, and the account number. Take the money over and you are the holder. Send fresh receipts (§ 15B(3)(a)).

Do not lose the interest history. A deposit held a year or more earns 5 percent a year, or the lower rate the bank actually paid, and the tenant gets it annually or as a rent credit (§ 15B(3)(b)). Last month's rent collected in advance earns interest on the same terms (§ 15B(2)(a)). Reconstruct the accrual from the original move-in date, not the date you took over.

The stakes are the reason to be careful. Holding a deposit outside a proper account, or failing to return it with a sworn itemized list within 30 days of the end of occupancy, forfeits your right to keep any of it and can cost three times the deposit plus interest, court costs and attorney fees (§ 15B(6), § 15B(7)).

Step 6. Tell your tenants

Tenants want three answers. Where rent goes now, 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.

The new deposit receipt answers the third question in writing, so send it with the letter.

Step 7. Take over the day-to-day

Line up a plumber, an electrician and a heating contractor before the heating season starts on September 16. Set up rent collection. Get a maintenance line that answers at 2am. This is the step where most landlords quietly drift back to a manager.

Who may manage property for pay in Massachusetts

Renting, leasing or negotiating the rental of real estate for another person for a fee makes you a broker or salesperson, and that takes a license from the board (M.G.L. c. 112 § 87PP, § 87RR).

Owners are exempt. A person acting for himself as owner, lessor, lessee, tenant or mortgagee, and the regular employees of that person managing that real estate, are outside the licensing requirement (M.G.L. c. 112 § 87QQ). Self-managing your own rentals needs no license. Hiring a W-2 site manager for your own buildings needs no license.

Hiring anyone else to manage for a fee does. Check their license on the board's registry before you sign.

One recent change worth knowing. Since August 1, 2025, a rental broker fee can only be charged to the party who engaged the broker, and a broker cannot contract with both sides (M.G.L. c. 112 § 87DDD½). If your old manager routinely billed tenants for a fee you arranged, that practice ended.

Your switching checklist

Read the agreement for notice, fees and clawbacks
Send written notice with a hard end date and a handover list
Open a Massachusetts interest-bearing deposit account first
Collect deposits, interest history, statements of condition, receipts, ledgers, leases and keys
Move each deposit and send every tenant a new receipt within 30 days
Tell tenants where rent goes and who to call
File a complaint with the board if funds do not come back

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, tracks deposit anniversaries and interest, 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 a Massachusetts attorney before ending a contract. Last checked September 2026.