Property manager and rental management: what’s the difference?

When you acquire an apartment, you become the proud owner of your home, but also the co-owner of the common areas of the building. You will therefore have dealings with a property manager. If you wish to rent out your apartment, it will be up to you to manage the relationship with the tenant and all the associated tasks, unless you use the services of a professional rental management agency.

What’s the difference between a property manager and rental management? OP helps you understand these two concepts in this new article.

Management of common areas vs management of private areas

The property manager

A property manager is an individual or legal entity that manages the common areas of jointly owned property such as an apartment building, and represents the co-owners. This management relates exclusively to the building’s common areas (such as lifts, roof, gardens, corridors, etc.). The property manager’s main tasks are to ensure that the co-owners get along and to see to it that decisions about the common areas are not left to the goodwill of individual owners.

The property manager is appointed by the general meeting of co-owners to look after the day-to-day management of the building and to manage the co-ownership’s funds. It must also convene the general meeting, write and keep the minutes, and carry out the decisions that have been made. Finally, it must carry out all actions required for the day-to-day management of the building.

The property manager’s role and powers have been modified and extended since 1 September 2010. For example, it must arrange civil liability insurance, allow the co-owners access to all documents relating to the co-ownership, request several quotations for certain kinds of work, evaluate supply contracts, request authorisation from the general meeting before entering into contracts with relatives (in order to avoid conflicts of interest), keep accounts and prepare a provisional budget for current expenses, etc.

Rental management

Rental management refers to the operational and administrative management of a rental property.

It includes the following tasks:

• Obtaining EPB certification
• Looking for a tenant
• Drawing up inventories
• Drawing up and signing the lease
• Receiving rent
• Calculating and receiving charges
• Recovering unpaid rent
• Repairs
• Managing the rental relationship (responding to requests/complaints from tenants)
• Index-adjusting the rent
• Notice of termination at the end of the lease, extension of the lease
• Tenant insurance checks

The property’s owner can take care of all of these tasks in person. Alternatively, he/she can entrust the management of the rental property to an agency by means of a rental mandate, or even completely relinquish all tasks by signing a management mandate.

The cost of rental management varies between 6% and 10% of the rent.

To sum up, the co-ownership property manager takes care of the common areas, while the rental manager deals exclusively with the private areas.

Legal obligation and freedom of choice

As soon as an apartment building is split into two or more entities, the general meeting of co-owners must appoint a property manager. This is a legal obligation which cannot be avoided, on pain of legal action.

However, the law provides two exceptions to the obligation to appoint a property manager:

1. If one and the same person owns an entire apartment building.
2. If this is justified by the nature of the property: a small residence involving few management tasks, for example. However, it should be borne in mind that any co-owner is entitled to request the appointment of a property manager.

Rental management, as indicated above, can be carried out by the owner of the rental property. However, if the owner lacks the expertise or time or lives too far away, he/she can entrust the management of the property to a professional by means of a management contract.

OP: the leader in the Belgian market

Involved in the property sector for 150 years, OP is the oldest property group active in Belgium. Its expertise is such that it is today the leading rental management agency in Belgium. In addition, OP is one of the country’s main players in the property management market. In 2019, the group had no fewer than 5,872 rental properties on its books, and a further 15,200 were being looked after by the property management department.

Would you like to entrust us with the management of your rental property? Are you looking for a good property manager? Feel free to contact us using our online form.