How to Fire Your Property Manager in North Dakota

A step-by-step guide for North Dakota landlords switching property managers, covering broker trust accounts, the records you are owed, tenant deposits and who may manage property for pay.

Last updated September 23, 2026

Slow repairs, a statement that never adds up, a tenant who calls you instead of them. Most landlords wait a season too long before making the call. North Dakota does not give you a statutory handover deadline the way some states do, so your leverage comes from two places. Your management agreement, and the trust account rules that bind any licensed broker holding your money.

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. Look for four things.

Notice period. Thirty days' written notice is common. Some agreements run to sixty.
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 money, you may be able to end it sooner. That is a question for a North Dakota attorney.

Step 2. Send written notice

Put it in writing, by email and by whatever method your 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.

Step 3. Know the trust account rules

A licensed North Dakota broker may not hold your money in their operating account. Every broker has to maintain a separate, noninterest-bearing trust account in their own or the firm name, at a federally insured financial institution in this state, and put all funds that are not the broker's own into it immediately (N.D.C.C. § 43-23-14.1). Commingling personal funds is barred, with a narrow allowance of up to $500 to cover the account's service charges.

The commission's rules put numbers on the mechanics. Money belonging to others goes into the trust or escrow account within 24 hours of receipt. The broker has to keep deposit slips, bank statements, numbered checks, a chronological journal and individual ledgers, reconcile the account monthly, and retain the records for not less than six years (N.D. Admin. Code § 70-02-01-15).

That record retention rule is your friend. Your manager cannot honestly say the ledger does not exist. Ask for the ledger for your properties by name, and if the money or the accounting does not arrive, file a complaint with the North Dakota Real Estate Commission.

Step 4. Collect everything

Ask for all of this before the end date.

Security deposits for every tenant, with the amount held for each one and the interest accrued
The trust account ledger for your properties, showing rents collected, fees taken and what is still owed to you
Signed leases, renewals and addenda
The move-in condition statement each tenant received under N.D.C.C. § 47-16-07.2
Tenant contact details and 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

Put a date on that list and repeat it in every follow-up. A paper trail is what turns a complaint into a file the commission can act on.

Step 5. Move the security deposits

North Dakota deposits cannot sit in your own household checking account. The deposit has to be held in a federally insured interest-bearing savings or checking account for the tenant's benefit (N.D.C.C. § 47-16-07.1). Interest earned belongs to the tenant, with no interest owed for an occupancy under nine months.

Open that account before the handover date so there is no gap. Confirm in writing what each tenant's balance is, including accrued interest, and reconcile it against the ledger your old manager hands over. Any shortfall is your problem the moment you take the money, since the 30-day itemized accounting and the treble damages for withholding without justification land on whoever holds the deposit at the end of the lease.

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 dated message covering all three, with the day the change takes effect and the new account holding their deposit.

Do this before the first of the month. Rent sent to an old manager's portal is rent you spend three weeks chasing.

Step 7. Take over the day to day

Line up your vendors, set up rent collection, and get a maintenance line that picks up at 2am. North Dakota expects you to keep the unit fit and habitable and to make repairs within a reasonable time (N.D.C.C. § 47-16-13.1). Sit on a repair and the tenant can fix it and deduct the cost from rent, recover it another way, or move out and stop paying (§ 47-16-13).

Watch the calendar rules too. Changing rent or any lease term on a month-to-month tenancy takes 30 days' written notice (§ 47-16-07), and ending one takes a full calendar month's written notice (§ 47-16-15).

Who can manage property for pay in North Dakota

A person may not act as a real estate broker or salesperson without a license from the real estate commission (N.D.C.C. § 43-23-05). The broker definition reaches anyone who, for another and for compensation, lists, leases, offers to lease or negotiates the leasing of real estate (§ 43-23-06.1). Anyone marketing and signing up tenants on your behalf for a fee is inside that definition.

The statute's list of broker acts centers on leasing and negotiating leases. It does not spell out rent collection or day to day management as separate licensed acts, so ask the commission directly if your candidate's role is narrow.

Owners are excepted. A bona fide owner or lessor, and their regular employees, may do these acts on property they own or lease when the work is part of managing that property and the investment in it (§ 43-23-07). Self-managing your own rentals needs no license. Before you hire a replacement, check their license status with the North Dakota Real Estate Commission.

Your switching checklist

Read the agreement for notice period, fees and clawbacks
Send written notice with a firm end date
Demand the trust account ledger and every record for your properties
Collect deposits, leases, condition statements, vendor files and keys
Open a federally insured interest-bearing deposit account and reconcile every balance
Tell tenants where to pay and who to call, before the first of the month
Verify any new manager's license with the commission

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 a North Dakota attorney before ending a contract. Last checked September 2026.