An orderly departure is straightforward. A contested one follows a predictable arc: the board terminates or declines to renew, the final invoice goes unpaid, the incoming agent produces a list of everything wrong with the building, and the board begins to describe those things as your failures rather than as the condition of a building you managed within the budget it approved.
Almost all of this is manageable, and most of it is decided by what you do in the weeks around the exit rather than by who was actually right.
We represent managing agents on the way out of an engagement, including where fees are being withheld or blame is being assigned. Call 212-233-1233 or email [email protected].
What You Owe the Building
Your obligations on exit come from the management agreement, and meeting them cleanly is also the best protection against a claim.
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Records and turnover
Books, records, contracts, resident files, keys and access credentials generally belong to the building and have to be delivered. Deliver them against a written, itemized receipt signed by the board or the incoming agent. A signed inventory ends the argument about what was handed over before it starts.
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A final accounting
Reconcile the accounts through the termination date and provide a clear statement of funds held, disbursed and owed, with backup. Transfer balances promptly and document the transfer. Delay here looks like concealment even when it is only a busy month.
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Cooperation through the transition
Most agreements require reasonable cooperation for a period after termination. Give it, in writing, and keep the correspondence. An agent who answered every question during the handover is in a very different position from one who went silent.
What the Building Owes You
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Fees through the termination date
Management fees earned through the effective date of termination, plus any fees due for the balance of the notice period if the building terminated without giving proper notice. Where the agreement had a fixed term and the board ended it early without cause, the remaining fees may be recoverable.
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Expenses advanced
Managing agents routinely front costs for buildings. Those are reimbursable, and they are also routinely forgotten in the disorder of a departure. Compile them with backup before you leave, not after.
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Indemnification that survives
The building's obligation to defend and indemnify you typically survives termination for claims arising from the period you managed. If a resident or vendor sues you a year later over something from your tenure, that clause is still live and should be invoked.
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Termination without cause versus for cause
Boards sometimes recharacterize an ordinary non-renewal as a termination for cause, because cause avoids notice obligations and supports withholding fees. Whether there was cause, and whether the agreement required written notice and a chance to cure first, are the questions that decide those disputes. The right response to a cause letter is a prompt written one, not silence.
Protecting Yourself on the Way Out
- Keep complete copies of everything you turn over — if the agreement restricts this, negotiate the right to retain copies before you deliver
- Get a signed, itemized receipt for the turnover, listing what was delivered and when
- Put the condition of the building in writing at the exit: open violations, known deferred maintenance, arrears, and any board decisions you recommended against
- Preserve board minutes and your own correspondence showing what the board approved and what it declined to fund
- Notify your errors and omissions carrier of any claim or circumstance that might become one, promptly — these policies are usually claims-made and late notice can forfeit coverage
- Consider whether you need tail coverage for claims made after the policy period
- Do not sign a release to get your final fees released without understanding what you are giving up
A Warning About Withholding Records
When a board refuses to pay, the instinct is to hold the files until it does. This is understandable and usually a mistake.
Records the building owns generally have to be delivered regardless of the fee dispute, and withholding them converts a straightforward collection claim — which you are likely to win — into a defense of your own conduct, which is a much worse posture. It also hands the board the argument that any harm the building suffered during the transition was caused by you. Turn the records over, then pursue the fees.
Speak With Our Firm
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Exit cleanly, then collect
We help managing agents structure the departure, respond to a termination letter, document the condition of the building at handover, and pursue unpaid fees afterward. Where the board has already begun making allegations, the response in the first two weeks tends to determine whether this stays a fee dispute or becomes a claim against you.
Call 212-233-1233 or email [email protected]. See also suing the board for unpaid fees and defending a claim by the board.
