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Fair Housing and Maintenance - Who Cares?

Fair Housing and Maintenance - Who Cares?

This is the first of several posts I am planning with a focus on some of the fair housing issues that can arise for maintenance professionals.   As an industry we tend to sometimes overlook the maintenance side of the business when it comes to fair housing education, focusing instead on the leasing and front office folks.  Or at least that is my theory.  And my theory will now be put to the test, because here is what you may not know about MFI blogs.  Those of us who are regular MFI bloggers get to see our “stats” – including how many people read each of our posts.  I will be watching to see if my “maintenance” posts draw a lesser readership.  Hmmmm…

 

Perhaps I am being a tad pessimistic with the above blog title of “Who Cares”?  Maybe you do (well, actually you likely do care or you would not have read this far).  But if you don’t, let me try some persuasion here as to why perhaps you should.

 

Liability cannot be delegated!  (Maybe I won’t get readers at all if I say boring things like that.)  What does that mean?  It’s about accountability, and if a maintenance professional makes a fair housing mistake, you can be held accountable.  You can be held accountable if you are that maintenance employee (even if your manager told you what you were doing was OK or you did not understand that there was a fair housing issue). You can be held accountable if you supervise in any way, directly (as a maintenance supervisor) or indirectly (as a Regional VP, for example) that errant maintenance professional.  And if you are an owner in the business, you can be held accountable as well as you are the “principal” and your maintenance employee is your “agent”.  So, whoever you may be – gotcha!

 

And with accountability comes a price tag!   And the cost ain’t cheap.  It is not unusual for today’s fair housing cases to result in settlements or judgments in the tens or hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of (often uninsured) dollars.

 

In a perfect world you would care about maintenance and fair housing because compliance is simply the right thing to do.  But if that rationale does not resonate with you, then understand that you should care because maintenance violations in fair housing can cost YOU a lot of MONEY.

 
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May I bare my soul naked to the public this morning? I have dealt with a company or two that feels no one should receive much training on any topic, much less Fair Housing directed to our Maintenance Teams. Because I feel (and KNOW) that is not the approach to take, we hold trainings through the local apartment associations or through an on-line company for all employees and I will pay for it out of my own pocket. From Day 1, all new employees must take and pass a Fair Housing class. I also want the Maintenance Teams to take a risk assessment which is something we do on a monthly basis and I pretty much lead this class on site for them. Our favorite times are spent reviewing "fake scenarios" in a morning meeting so that the Maintenance and Leasing teams work together and understand WHY the work order procedure is in place (not just to make the resident happy their issue was fixed, not just to keep the property in good repair, but to PROTECT our own behinds from any pointing fingers and wagging tongues that will lead to a Fair Housing complaint.)

I wish these smaller companies would recognize the value and need for training. But every year, they seem to want to eliminate training from their Budgets. So, I do go recruit qualified people (attorneys especially) and I research so we can role play different things. People forget easily so repetition helps cement the idea that there is a method to the madness of prioritizing work orders, especially when it comes to disabled Residents. Of course, now our Maintenance Team is always telling me about some "teachable moment" they recognized and are pretty happy when they handle themselves so professionally. Training is an investment in your employees but it is also a kind of insurance against disaster.

Thanks, Nadeen, for your post!

  Mindy Sharp
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Mindy, it has always been stunning to me that anyone in any business would not want to have the best informed and best trained employees possible. And when you add a risk factor to the equation (and fair housing is a high risk issue with huge financial ramifications), to keep employees from learning about fair housing is so unwise. Years ago there was the fear that "if I send them to fair housing classes and they still make a mistake, I will have even more responsibility for that, so I would rather not have them learn about this". But attorneys who practice in this area will tell you that advocates, judges and juries will consider such a position more of a nose-thumbing; they see training as an effort to do it right on the part of an owner or company. I've been teaching fair housing for 23+ years, and while there have been huge changes in the law and its application (and more evolution is coming our way), we still haven't seen the change in some companies as to their attitude of having informed employees. I appreciate your feedback, as sad as it makes me feel...

  Green Nadeen
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<p>Is this fair housing statement true?<br />
<br />
Can a private owner who owns a four family rental unit and resides in one of the units legally discriminate against a protected class but may not market their preference or verbally speak of it because Fair Housing Laws are not detailed when it cones to smaller properties?</p>

  Guest (Brandi Sloan)
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<p>Generally the Fair Housing Act applies when the landlord has more than 4 dwellings that are intended to be rented. While someone who is under this cap can turn away just about anyone, the ability to do so is lost if the landlord refers in any way to his discrimination (either by advertising such, as in "no children allowed" or by telling such to a prospect, as in "Sorry, I don't rent to people with children."). The ability to discriminate is also lost if the dwelling is placed through a real estate person or property management company; it is also lost if the landlord is licensed in real estate. Here is the specific language from the Federal Register, Vol. 54, No. 13, page 3237: "Section 503 of the Fair Housing Act provides that nothing in the Fair Housing Act, other than the prohibitions against discriminatory advertising, applies to the sale or rental by an owner of certain single family houses without the use of a real estate broker or to the rental of rooms in dwellings containing living quarters occupied by no more than four families, provided that the owner actually occupies one of the units." Keep in mind, however, that other civil rights laws as well as State and local fair housing laws may not allow for any discrimination whatsoever, no matter how many (or few) dwellings are involved.</p>

  Guest (Nadeen Green)
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Hi Nadeen. Another issue that has been on my mind is when a resident who is planning on moving out cancels at the last minute. What should I do if I have already pre-leased that apartment home? Once a resident agrees to move out per move out notice, aren't they then obligated to move or do I just cancel the pre-leased resident? Please let me know how I should handle a situation like this?

  Brandi Sloan
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Brandi, in a situation such as this, your local/State landlord tenant laws will apply. When the existing resident decides to overstay their welcome (based on their decision originally conveyed to you that they were vacating), how their continuing tenancy is legally defined and legally addressed will dictate how you will respond. Because of these types of situations, you should consider having a plan for pre-leased residents, perhaps explaining (1) that sometimes existing residents do not live up to their commitment to vacate an apartment and (2) how you handle those scenarios with the pre-leased resident.

  Nadeen Green
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Hi Nadeen. Yesterday Child Protective Services came into the office asking for information on a resident. Can I give information to in a situation like that or is that part of the privacy act? What would be a great way to handle such a situation?

  Brandi
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Just to confirm, giving her new address out to the CPS representative was ok?

  Brandi
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Hi, again. Sorry for the late response (the system thinks we are talking too many times on this - LOL), so I have to respond a bit out of sequence to your question "Just to confirm, giving her new address out to the CPS representative was ok?". If the resident is a current resident and you were merely confirming her address with you along with the telephone number on record, I do not see that as a problem. If the resident has moved from your community but you have a forwarding address (for security deposit return, for example), I do not think it wise to give that forwarding information to anyone.

  Green Nadeen
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Brandi, this week's SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) decision is somewhat relevant to the discussion we have been having here about giving out address and phone numbers of residents. On June 22, 2015 SCOTUS struck down a Los Angeles ordinance that allowed the police to inspect hotel/motel guest registers without permission from a judge. Dozens of cities have such ordinances for "warrantless" searches. While a hotel/motel owner can still elect to provide the guest information, they have the right to withhold consent without a search warrant.

  Green Nadeen
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Great & useful information as usual Nadeen. Thanks a million!

  Brandi
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Hi Nadeen. A resident makes some fabulous cakes. Her customers come to her apartment to pick up the cakes she makes for them. Is that illegal? Does the leasing office need to give her a Cease and desist letter?

  Brandi Sloan
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Brandi, while this is not a fair housing question, I will take a stab at answering it based on generalities of law (but do check for the specifics for your location and with your lease). First consideration would be whether the local government (city, town, county, township - whatever) thinks this meets the definition of a "business" requiring perhaps a license, fees, inspections (food related). Whether the local government types care or not, the next issue is whether the lease you have with this resident allows her to maintain a business/work from home in her apartment. Over time, due to the internet, many landlords do not care if people are running a business from their apartment if all is online (a professional blogger, perhaps or someone who does programming for outside parties). In fact, a landlord may not even know this is going on and it really does not impact the property or the neighbors. However, with your cake baking resident the scenario is different because she is having customers come to the property and most landlords would have an issue with that. But what does your lease say? Is this a non-no (sophisticated legal term) or is the lease silent as to this issue? If it is a lease violation, handle that as you do with any resident who breaks rules or is not lease compliant; if it is not a lease violation you probably cannot take issue with this. Again, do check with local government and read through your lease!

  Nadeen Green

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