Employee Offboarding Checklist

HR confirms the last working day in writing — voluntary resignations should have a signed resignation letter on file. The last working day drives the entire offboarding cadence: paycheck timing, COBRA, access cutover, and key collection all anchor to this date.

Departure type drives the security posture: involuntary terminations call for same-day access cutover and rekeying of master cylinders. Licensure status drives the broker-release paperwork — leasing agents holding a state real estate license cannot simply walk; the license has to be released or transferred to a new broker per state DRE rules.

Capture the reason for departure, feedback on management, and any unreported tenant or owner issues the departing employee is sitting on. Schedule for the day before the last working day so any flagged issues can be addressed before the employee is offline.

Disable the user in AppFolio, Buildium, Yardi, Rent Manager, or whichever PMS the firm runs. Reassign their assigned properties and open tasks to a colleague before disabling — once disabled, the assignment history can be hard to untangle. Remove trust account signatory authority if the role had it.

Cover Zillow Rental Manager, Apartments.com, Realtor.com Rentals, and any self-showing platform (Tenant Turner, Showdigs, Rently). Self-show access is the easy one to forget — a former leasing agent with active Rently credentials can still let prospects into vacant units.

Disable the user in DocuSign, HelloSign, or the PMS's built-in e-sign. Reassign any in-flight envelopes — leases mid-signature, addenda, vendor contracts. An expired user with pending envelopes leaves leases stuck in limbo.

Set up an auto-forward on the departing email to the manager or successor, and convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox in M365 / Google Workspace. Tenants and owners will email the old address for weeks. Move shared drive ownership before the account is fully deprovisioned.

Property managers and maintenance staff commonly hold master keys covering dozens of units, individual unit keys, mailbox keys, pool gate keys, and amenity fobs. Inventory against the key log; missing items are a serious tenant-security exposure. Photograph the returned set against the log before signing off.

Any vacant unit with a Supra or combo lockbox the departing employee accessed needs a new code. Update the listings, the showing platform, and the maintenance vendor list. Skipping this leaves a former employee with walk-in access to vacants for as long as the unit sits.

Remove the user from the building access control system (Brivo, Kisi, Openpath, or whatever the property runs), garage fobs, and the alarm panel user list. For commercial buildings, also remove from the elevator destination dispatch and any tenant-suite ACL.

For involuntary terminations, rekey master cylinders on any building where the employee held a master — even if all keys were returned. Duplication is cheap and the liability of an estranged ex-employee with master access is not. Document the rekey date in the property file.

Update the owner of record for each property in the PMS, then make the introduction call before the departure. Owners hate hearing about their PM leaving from a generic email after the fact — owner attrition spikes when handoffs are silent.

Send a short message to all tenants in the departing employee's portfolio with the new manager's name, email, and phone. Update the after-hours emergency line and the tenant portal contact card. Don't let tenants find out by getting bounce-backs from the old email.

Walk the successor through every open work order, in-flight rental application, screening decision pending, and lease renewal in negotiation. Pending FCRA adverse-action notices are time-sensitive — missing one because of a handoff gap is a regulatory exposure.

Hand off the active vendor list — plumbers, electricians, HVAC, painters, cleaners — with current COI status and any negotiated rate cards. Confirm the COI tracker is current; lapsed certificates inherited by a new manager often go unnoticed for months.

Final-pay timing is state-specific and stricter than people remember. California requires payment on the last day for involuntary terminations and within 72 hours for voluntary resignations without notice. Massachusetts requires same-day for terminations. Confirm the rule for the operating state and include accrued PTO if the state mandates payout.

COBRA election notice must be sent within 14 days of the qualifying event for plans subject to it. Process the 401(k) separation with the plan administrator and confirm the last benefit-coverage date with the carriers so claims after the cutover are denied cleanly rather than paid and clawed back.

File the broker-release form with the state Department of Real Estate so the license is no longer hung under the firm's broker. State timelines vary — California DRE is 10 days; Texas TREC is immediate via online portal. Until released, the firm's broker carries supervisory liability for the former agent's prior acts.

Have the employee sign an acknowledgment that they understand the surviving NDA, non-solicit, and non-compete terms. Note that several states (CA, MN, ND, OK) bar non-competes for most employees — confirm enforceability before relying on the clause to protect owner relationships.