Property Management and Landlord-Tenant Relations
The management relationship
A property manager acts as the owner's agent: fiduciary duties, a written management agreement (scope, fees, authority to lease and spend, reporting), separate trust accounts for rents and deposits, and no commingling. The manager must know fair housing law, habitability obligations, and the owner's insurance and budget constraints.
Residential tenancies in Iowa
Iowa's residential landlord-tenant law (Iowa Code ch. 562A) supplies default rules: an implied warranty of habitability, the landlord's duty to maintain common areas and mechanical systems, the tenant's duty to pay rent, keep the unit clean, and not damage it. The landlord may enter with reasonable notice (except emergencies) and must not retaliate for a tenant's good-faith complaint. Security deposits: no statutory cap in Iowa; the landlord must return the deposit or provide an itemized statement of withholdings within the statutory period (30 days) after the tenancy ends and the tenant provides a mailing address. Eviction for nonpayment typically begins with a short statutory notice to cure, followed by a forcible-entry action in court; self-help lockouts are unlawful.
Traps
- Treating a deposit as the landlord's money to spend freely when a trust duty applies.
- Confusing the notice to cure with the notice to quit.
- Believing an "as-is" rental removes habitability duties.
Worked example: Tenant vacates May 31 and gives a forwarding address. The landlord wants to keep $400 for cleaning and unpaid rent. He must send the balance plus an itemized written accounting within 30 days, or he risks losing the right to withhold.