The person who controls client money, the lead maintenance coordinator and the senior property managers. In a property management firm those three groups approve the agent's riskiest held actions: payments to landlords and contractors, emergency repairs and anything affecting a tenancy. Directors need a short grounding at the same time. Lettings, administration and accounts assistants follow.
Why client money first?
Because it is where a mistake costs most and is hardest to reverse. Property managers hold rent and deposits on behalf of landlords and pay contractors from them. Agents will prepare those payments, match invoices and update landlord bank details. Each of those actions can send someone else's money to the wrong place. The person who releases client money must understand exactly what the agent did before approving.
Maintenance and tenancy decisions follow closely, because they affect people's homes and safety.
Who is in each wave?
| Wave | Role | What they approve | Training |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Client accounts manager or finance lead | Landlord payments, contractor payments, bank detail changes | Reviewer track, heavy on held payments |
| 1 | Lead maintenance coordinator | Emergency jobs, works above landlord limits, safety work | Reviewer track, heavy on spotting emergencies |
| 1 | Senior property managers | Arrears letters, renewals, deposit deductions | Reviewer track with practicum on their own portfolio |
| 1 | Directors | Limits, red lines, the record | Common grounding |
| 2 | Property managers and block managers | Day-to-day held actions on their buildings | Reviewer track |
| 3 | Lettings and administration staff | Hand-offs from the agent | Common grounding |
What may the agent do, and what stays with people?
- Depth 2: draft arrears letters, renewal offers, landlord statements and deposit deductions.
- Depth 3: book routine repairs with approved contractors within landlord limits; send rent reminders.
- Depth 4: pay landlords and contractors, return deposits; held for a named person unless the agent has earned that depth and the amount is within the firm's own limits.
- Stays with a person: any change to where client money is paid, every formal notice to a tenant, every emergency and safety job, every deposit dispute.
An example: a landlord who asked to be paid elsewhere
Take a firm managing a few hundred flats for around eighty landlords. An email arrives from a landlord's address asking that this month's rent be paid to a new account because the old one is closing. The email is external provenance, and an external claim cannot authorise a payment. The agent updates the draft payment run and holds the change, because the firm's own limits make every bank detail change a red line.
A trained client accounts manager phones the landlord on the number on file. The landlord knows nothing about it; their email was compromised. An untrained accounts assistant, covering for the month end, sees a polite request from a known landlord and approves. A month's rent is gone, and the firm must make the landlord whole. This is why the client accounts lead, not the newest assistant, trains first.
What else must wave one learn?
How to read the bound that held an action. A held repair might be held because of the landlord's spending limit, because the contractor is not on the approved list, or because the tenant mentioned a gas smell. Each needs a different response. Wave one also needs the fallback: agent certificates lapse after 90 days and a run that clears no depth drops an agent to depth 1 the same day, so client accounts must be able to complete a payment run by hand.
A firm can adopt the practice of making the right to release client money depend on a current certificate. Pryme Intelligence Academy's certificates can be checked at source by number or QR code, which suits landlords who want to know who handles their money.
Where does this fit with the wider rollout?
Run a readiness assessment in a property management firm on the first branch, then roll the training out across the firm. What property management firms get wrong about AI agent training lists the traps. Compare the order in a law firm and an accountancy firm, which also hold client money. The full approach is in training teams for AI agents.
Questions people ask
Should landlords be trained?
No. Tell them what the agent does, what it always holds for a person, and how payment changes are confirmed.
Do contractors need to know about the agent?
Yes, briefly. They should know bookings may come from the agent and how to query one with a person.
What if the firm has one person doing accounts?
Certify a director as second reviewer for client money, so payment runs never depend on one untrained cover person.