Activities that require a property management licence:

• leasing or offering to lease real estate, or negotiating or approving, or offering to negotiate or approve, a lease or rental of real estate
• holding money received in connection with a lease or rental of real estate
• advertising, negotiating, or carrying out any other activity, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of furthering an activity above

Individuals or groups that do not require a property management licence:

• an on-site manager who lives in the residential property
• a non-profit organization, its employees or officials when engaged in property management for subsidized residential premises

Examples

1. A property owner manages his own property. A friend asks the property owner to manage one of their properties. The property owner would need to be licensed in property management and registered with a brokerage that provides property management services in order to manage the friend’s property.
2. A residential property owner enters into a written service agreement with a residential real estate professional to sell the property. The owner moves out of town prior to the home selling. He asks his residential real estate professional to find a tenant. The residential real estate professional can lease the property on the owner’s behalf, but can’t manage the property unless he is licensed in property management and his brokerage allows property management activities.
3. Leasing under contract: You have a property (strip mall) under contract, as a property management brokerage, and you advertise for clients to lease a bay in the strip mall. You get a call from a potential tenant. The potential tenant says the bay that is available isn’t quite what he wants and he says he saw one across the street in a different building. Unless you have a property management contract with the owner of the property across the street, you can’t help the potential tenant. The potential tenant needs a commercial real estate professional. You can only do the leasing for the properties under which you have a property management contract.
4. Asset management: You’re working for a property management brokerage as a property manager and an individual comes to you and tells you they own a number of commercial properties, but they are now in distress. They want your advice on what they should do with those properties (sell, lease, etc.). As a property manager, you are limited in what you can do with respect to those properties. For example, you can’t conduct market evaluations for the properties as that would require a licence for commercial real estate.
5. Licensed to trade in all areas: Some individuals are licensed to trade in all areas of real estate practice, including property management, but their brokerage does not allow property management activities. In those cases, those individuals cannot provide property management activities because doing so would be providing property management services outside of the brokerage with which you’re registered. If you’re licensed in an area of practice but your brokerage doesn’t allow those activities, you cannot provide those services or trade in those areas. You can only provide services as a licensed real estate professional on behalf of one brokerage.