# How to Verify a Property Manager in India: 9 Questions | 66 MG Road

By Saurabh Garg, founder·9 min read·Published 2026-06-11·Updated 2026-08-09
**Short answer:** Verify a property manager in India on paper, before the keys move. Ask for the registered entity name, PAN and GST registration, the management agreement, the power of attorney they want you to sign, a real owner statement with bills attached, and a written termination clause. The red flags are a broad general power of attorney, rent routed through a personal account, a bill that cannot be itemised, and proof that arrives only when you ask for it.

# How to Verify a Property Manager in India Before You Hand Over the Keys

**Proof on request is theatre. Proof by default is evidence. Every question below exists to find out which of the two you are buying, and you can find out before any keys move.**

We run a property management company, so read this with that in mind. It is also why the list is written so it can be used against us. An owner who runs these questions on 66 MG Road and on two competitors is doing the thing that protects owners, and the answers will separate the firms faster than any brochure.

Hiring from abroad is hard for a structural reason. You cannot drop in. You cannot ask the neighbour. The person you are evaluating knows all of that, and the whole category is priced on the assumption that nobody is checking. So check on paper, where distance costs you nothing.

## Who you are hiring, in three shapes

**A registered company** with a management agreement, a GST registration and staff on payroll. Slowest to sign, easiest to hold to account, and the only shape where the person who visits your property is not the person who owns the business.

**A broker who also manages.** Managing is the sideline that keeps the listing relationship warm. The conflict is structural: the broker earns most on a tenant change, and you earn most on a tenant who stays. The comparison in full is in [property management company versus broker](/guides/property-management-company-vs-broker-nri).

**One resourceful individual.** A phone, a two-wheeler and a genuine work ethic. This works well at eight properties and fails at forty, and it fails without any dishonesty at all. Your property becomes the one he gets to next month. There is nothing to sue and nobody to escalate to.

None of the three is disqualified by its shape. What matters is whether the shape is disclosed and whether the paper matches it.

## Nine questions

Send them in one email. The reply, and the speed of the reply, is the test.

1/ **What is the registered name of the entity I will contract with, and its PAN and GST registration number?** A trading name is not an entity. Check the registration exists.
2/ **Who is the named person responsible for my property, and what happens when they leave?** A helpline is not an answer. Neither is a dashboard.
3/ **How many properties does that named person handle?** The number tells you what your service level is, whatever the agreement says.
4/ **Where does the rent land, and on what date?** The correct answer is your NRO account, from the tenant or through a designated collection account, on a stated date. Rent that rests in someone's personal account is not your money while it rests there.
5/ **Send me a real owner statement from last month, with the property details removed.** Look for line items with bills attached. A summary with three totals is a summary of a decision you were not part of.
6/ **What is the approval floor above which you need my written consent to spend?** A firm with no floor has a floor of infinity.
7/ **What power of attorney do you want from me, and can I see the draft?** The right answer is a narrow special power of attorney for one property, with sale and mortgage power excluded in words. A firm that asks for a general power of attorney is asking for the wrong thing and the drafting reasons are in [POA misuse and the clauses that stop it](/guides/nri-power-of-attorney-misuse-india).
8/ **How do I leave, and what do you hand back?** Notice period, the return of keys, originals, the deposit and the tenant relationship, in writing, in the agreement.
9/ **What is not included, and what does it cost when it happens?** Ask for the exception list. Every firm has one and the good ones will send it. The cost side of this is set out in [what NRI property management costs in India](/guides/nri-property-management-cost-india).

Question five is the one that does the most work. Anybody can describe a process. A firm that cannot produce one real statement from last month has not been producing them.

## Documents to demand before the keys move

- **The management agreement**, in full, including the annexures. Read the exception list and the termination clause first, because those two are where the disagreements happen.

- **The power of attorney draft**, reviewed by your own lawyer and not theirs.

- **The entity's PAN and GST registration**, matching the name on the agreement and on the invoices you will receive.

- **A sample owner statement and a sample inspection report** from a real month.

- **The tenancy agreement template** they intend to use, so you can see whether it names you as the licensor.

- **Two owner references you can email.** Ask each one a single question: what happened the last time something broke.

Where a firm sends five of the six and explains the sixth, that is a firm. Where a firm sends a brochure, you have your answer.

## Red flags

**A general power of attorney is requested.** The one that ends the conversation. No management job needs sale power.

**Rent goes to a personal account, or to an account in the manager's name, and reaches you later.** Every day your rent sits in someone else's account is a day of their float and your risk.

**The bill cannot be itemised.** If a bill cannot be itemised, it cannot be honest. A repair reported as an amount with no invoice is a number somebody chose.

**Proof arrives only when you ask.** A photograph taken from the doorway, undated, sent because you asked, proves that someone can walk to your door when prompted. Lead time is enough to fix, stage or borrow whatever the photograph needs to show.

**Guaranteed rent.** Somebody is taking a risk position on your property and pricing it into a number you cannot see. Ask what happens to the guarantee when the tenant leaves in month three.

**Pricing that is not published.** A firm that quotes a different percentage to each owner is choosing what you can afford, not what the work costs.

**Vagueness on tax.** A manager cannot take over your tenant's deduction obligation. Rent paid to a non-resident landlord falls under Section 195 of the Income-tax Act and the tenant is the deductor, which is set out in [TDS on rent for NRI landlords](/guides/tds-on-rent-nri-landlord). A firm that waves this away has not run it before.

**No exit.** A service that makes leaving hard is telling you what staying will be like.

## The standard, in five lines

Owners ask what good looks like. This is the version we publish and the version to hold every firm to, including us.

- A named human. Not a helpline, not a dashboard, not whoever picks up.

- Every rupee a line item. If a bill cannot be itemised, it cannot be honest.

- Dated proof by default, sent before payment, without you asking.

- An approval floor. Your money should not move on someone else's judgment alone.

- A clean exit, written into the agreement.

Why owners arrive at this conversation already suspicious, and what the category did to earn that, is in [why NRIs do not trust property managers](/guides/why-nris-dont-trust-property-managers).

## FAQ

**What questions should an NRI ask before hiring a property manager in India?**
Ask for the registered entity name with PAN and GST number, the named person responsible and how many properties they handle, where rent lands and on what date, a real owner statement from last month with bills attached, the approval floor for spending, the power of attorney draft, the termination terms, and the list of what is excluded and what it costs. Send all of them in one email and judge the reply.

**What documents should a property manager in India provide before I hire them?**
The full management agreement including annexures and the termination clause, the power of attorney draft for your own lawyer to review, the entity's PAN and GST registration matching the name on the agreement, a sample owner statement and inspection report from a real month, the tenancy agreement template, and two owner references you can contact.

**What are the red flags when hiring a property manager in India?**
A request for a general power of attorney, rent routed through a personal account, repair costs reported without invoices, photographs sent only when you ask for them, guaranteed rent, unpublished pricing that varies by owner, vagueness about the tenant's TDS obligation on rent paid to a non-resident, and an agreement with no clear exit.

**Should an NRI give a property manager a power of attorney?**
Give a narrow special power of attorney naming one property, listing the permitted management acts, and excluding sale, gift, mortgage and long leases in express words, with an expiry date and no right to appoint a sub-attorney. A general power of attorney carrying sale power is never required for management work and is the single riskiest document an owner abroad can sign.

**How can an NRI check that a property manager is a real company?**
Ask for the registered entity name and match it against the PAN and GST registration number, then confirm the same name appears on the management agreement and on every invoice. Registration details can be checked on the GST portal. A trading name on a website with no registered entity behind it is not a company you can hold to anything.

## Hold us to the same nine questions

We will answer all nine in writing before you sign anything, and we would rather you asked two competitors the same nine. 66 MG Road publishes its pricing, works under a narrow special power of attorney with sale power excluded, routes rent to your NRO account, sends dated photographs before the invoice rather than after a request, and writes the exit into the agreement. Question two, answered for us: the named person is our own employee in Bangalore or Hyderabad, and in Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Gurgaon it is a broker partner we name before you pay.

*This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Confirm your own position with a qualified adviser.*

*Saurabh Garg, founder, 66 MG Road*

## Sources

- Suraj Lamp & Industries (P) Ltd. v. State of Haryana (2011), on powers of attorney and transfer of immovable property, Indian Kanoon: [https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1565619/](https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1565619/)

- Section 33, The Registration Act, 1908 (authentication of a power of attorney executed by a person residing outside India), Indian Kanoon: [https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1182132/](https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1182132/)

- Goods and Services Tax, taxpayer search and registration verification, GST portal: [https://www.gst.gov.in](https://www.gst.gov.in)

- Income Tax Department, India (Section 195, deduction of tax on payments to non-residents): [https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in](https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in)

Information on this page is as on 2026-08-09. Rules, rates, deadlines and government portals change without notice, so verify against the official source before you act. This page is for information only. It is not tax or legal advice, and it is not a substitute for a qualified adviser who knows your position.

## Compare and cost

- [The NRI Property Management Companies in India: A Comparison You Can Check](/guides/best-nri-property-management-companies-india)
- [What NRI Property Management Costs in India: The Four Models and What Hides in Each](/guides/nri-property-management-cost-india)
- [NoBroker NRI Services Review: What the Pages Promise and What They Leave Out](/guides/nobroker-nri-services-review)

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Source: [https://66mgroad.com/guides/how-to-verify-a-property-manager-india-nri](https://66mgroad.com/guides/how-to-verify-a-property-manager-india-nri) · 66 MG Road. Full LLM brief: https://66mgroad.com/llms.txt