Here’s one way to defray the high cost of rent in the Bay Area: Become a resident manager.

California law requires every apartment building with 16 or more units to have a “responsible person” living on site, unless the owner lives there.

State labor laws require them to be given free rent in exchange for a maximum number of hours per month, or discounted rent plus minimum wage for every hour worked. The rent break is not subject to income tax, but you’ll have to be OK with tenants interrupting your dinner and the occasional dead body in a unit.

The law does not say what these people, often called resident managers, must do. Duties vary widely. Although large complexes usually have full-time, professional on-site managers, those in small and mid-size buildings typically do it part time.

For artist Katy Boynton, being a part-time resident manager is the only way she can afford to live in San Francisco. Without it, “I’d have to leave the city,” she said.

Boynton has been managing a building in Hayes Valley with 24 units and ground-floor commercial space for almost four years. Like many managers, she fell into the job, almost by accident.

“It was a referral from a friend who had previously applied for the job,” she said. “I had no property management experience, but had applicable skills from running a child care center.” That job involved collecting tuition, dealing with late payments and “fixing things when you couldn’t find a handyman.”

As resident manager, she collects and deposits the rent. When people move out, she does a walk-through, decides if any deposit needs to be withheld and works with contractors or painters to clean up the place. She interviews and helps select new tenants and handles minor repairs and light cleaning.

The upside: “I get to live in an amazing apartment in an amazing building in an amazing neighborhood,” she said. The downside: “Being on call more or less 24 hours a day, every day of the week.”

She sleeps with her phone volume turned up. When she leaves town, she appoints another resident to fill in if there’s an emergency. Even so, she had to rush home from a bachelorette party near Guerneville one weekend when a leak sprung and a plumber wasn’t available.

She has had few problems with tenants; her biggest headache is homeless people camping in an alcove of the commercial space.

During the 20 years he’s been managing a small apartment complex in the Marina, Jim Hackett has had to deal with a roof leak that short-circuited the fire alarms, a “break-in where we almost caught the guy who did it” and a “naked guy on the fire escape.”

The state labor code requires building owners to compensate on-site managers in one of two ways, said Margaret “Maggie” Grover, an Oakland employment attorney.

Option one

A manager can be given a free apartment, which under a formula set in law essentially buys the owner up to 56 hours of labor per month. It works like this: Free rent compensates the manager for monthly wages equal to either $564.81 or two-thirds of the unit’s current market rent — whichever is lower. For most apartments, $564.81 is the lower number.

In areas where the statewide minimum wage is $10 per hour, it would buy about 56 hours per month. In San Francisco, where the minimum wage is $12.25, it would pay for about 46 hours of work. Managers working more hours must be paid at least minimum wage.

The $564.81 applies no matter how much the unit would normally rent for, although if two managers live in the unit, the number is $835.49. These numbers go up when the statewide minimum wage rises.

Option two

The other option is to give managers discounted rent and pay at least minimum wage for every hour they work. The discount must be at least one-third off the market rent if the manager is required to live in the building, and none of it can be applied toward compensation, Grover said. This is true even if the building has fewer than 16 units, she added.

Resident managers are eligible for overtime pay. They do not have to pay income or payroll tax on their free or discounted rent, but they do pay income and payroll tax on their wages, said Servando Sandoval, a San Jose attorney. The employer must sign a “voluntary written agreement” with the manager and keep track of the manager’s hours in case there is a dispute.

“Our managers have to turn in time cards every week,” said Benjamin Scott, founder of Advent Properties, a property management company in Oakland. In Advent’s buildings, the manager job varies depends on what the owner wants, but “We limit the scope of their duties.”

Their main role is to receive legal notices; make sure common areas are clean, well-lit and free of debris; report maintenance problems and deal with behavioral issues such as noise or improper parking. They don’t do maintenance, rent collection or leasing.

“A lot of landlords will have them collect rent, do showings. To me, that’s a landmine,” Scott said. “They are just not trained” to know the difference between comfort and service animals, for example, and follow all the fair housing rules.

People interested in becoming managers can search on Craigslist or submit their resume to the owner or property management company. People who become managers often live in the building already or work in property management. If they have a California Certified Residential Manager credential from the California Apartment Association, that’s a plus, but it’s not necessary, Scott said. He is mostly looking for people “with great customer service skills.” And plenty of patience.

Getting started

Elyseé Wilson-Egolf had no property management experience before taking a resident manager job in Berkeley. “I have worked as a teacher, so it’s within my skills bailiwick,” she said.

She’s getting $800 off the $1,300 monthly rent. “For me this was a godsend situation,” said Wilson-Egolf, a researcher at UC Berkeley. “My income was quite a bit lower when I first started living here. It’s the only way I could have lived (in Berkeley), especially near a transit hub.”

The tenants are mostly college students, whom she finds easier to manage than full-blown adults.

Sam Sorokin, a managing partner with Premium Properties in Oakland, said resident manager is a good job for people “who like being a housemother, people who like to know everyone.” Some of his managers have set up book clubs or holiday parties. “A lot of the benefits go beyond the money.”

Maherah Silmi is resident manager of a 42-unit building on Scott Street in San Francisco, where the tenants range from security guards to techies. “It’s fun getting to know people from all walks of life,” she said. The money also helps: she pays $1,000 a month for a “glorified studio” that normally would rent for $2,700, plus minimum wage for about one hour per day. “If I have a big emergency, I clock extra hours.”

Not so much fun: Knocks on the door at all hours, and tenants asking for strange favors. On Monday, one asked Silmi to email a resume for him. The worst thing that happened was a suicide in the building.

Cathy Spiteri, who lived in three buildings she managed on the Peninsula before retiring, said managing is a good job for a parent because you can work at home, but “you have to like people. And paperwork. You have to follow all the rules and regulations,” Spiteri said. You also must be able to “keep a cool head, keep your eyes and ears open and really be alert and pay attention.”

Like Silmi, she once had a dead tenant to deal with. “There’s no such thing as free rent.”

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Blog: http://blog.sfgate.com/pender Twitter: @kathpender