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When a landlord uses a property management company to take care of a rental (including things such as collecting rent and doing repairs) does the property manager sign the lease with the tenants or does the home owner?

I tried finding the answer in the Residential Tenancy Act but was unable to. Here is how they define landlord, but I'm left wondering, what is a "landlord agent" is that a property manager?

"landlord", in relation to a rental unit, includes any of the following:

(a) the owner of the rental unit, the owner's agent or another person who, on behalf of the landlord,

(i) permits occupation of the rental unit under a tenancy agreement, or

(ii) exercises powers and performs duties under this Act, the tenancy agreement or a service agreement;

(b) the heirs, assigns, personal representatives and successors in title to a person referred to in paragraph (a);

(c) a person, other than a tenant occupying the rental unit, who

(i) is entitled to possession of the rental unit, and

(ii) exercises any of the rights of a landlord under a tenancy agreement or this Act in relation to the rental unit;

(d) a former landlord, when the context requires this;

On the stand forms it uses the word "landlord" so I'm wondering, would it be invalid if the property manager signed it as he's technically not the landlord?

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What matters here is whether the person signing the lease on behalf of the landlord was authorised by the landlord to do so; the Residential Tenancy Act definition of 'landlord' is irrelevant.

When you have an agent, that person 'stands in your shoes' as far as the law is concerned. There are some exceptions (e.g. if you have a firearm permit you cannot hand the firearm to an 'agent' to use without their own permit) but when it comes to leases the law does not mind whether the landlord signs a lease personally or gets a property manager to do it for them.

To further illustrate: suppose the landlord's name is Larry, the property manager's name is Alice, and lease form says 'Landlord sign here: ....' Alice could get a pen and write 'Larry' there, and that would be a valid lease executed by the landlord as far as the law is concerned.

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  • Signing somebody else's name is fraud. Alice would and should sign their own name, and the agreement indicating they had the right to do so on behalf of the agency, who has the right to do so on behalf of the owner.
    – user4657
    Nov 13, 2016 at 23:46
  • @nij Do you have some authority for what you are saying about fraud?
    – Patrick Conheady
    Nov 14, 2016 at 3:32
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    @nij We're talking about the specific question of the property manager ('Alice') signing the lease. If, addressing a different question instead, Alice actually told the tenant that she was the owner of the property and not just a property manager, then that would be fraud, but that has nothing to do with who signs the lease and how they mark it (whether that be with the word 'Larry', with the word 'Alice', with an 'X', or verbally).
    – Patrick Conheady
    Nov 14, 2016 at 3:39
  • So just to confirm the property manager would sign his own name, not the actual owners?
    – TwoTwins
    Nov 23, 2016 at 22:34
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    @TwoTwins Ideally the property manager signs his own name and writes something like "as authorised property manager for landlord XYZ"; it just keeps things simple that way. But even if the property manager does sign the landlord's name, the lease is still validly executed.
    – Patrick Conheady
    Nov 28, 2016 at 11:05
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The passage you quote clearly states that the property manager is considered the landlord when they act on the owners landlord's behalf.

As part of that representation, a duty of the landlord, the agent will sign the lease.

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