Fair Housing

Internal employee communication is essential to keep an office running smoothly and fair housing compliant. Without proper internal communication, staff can find themselves struggling to know what to do. Consider the following scenarios. Maintenance Work Request We all know that fair housing best practice is to complete maintenance requests in the order they were received except in the case of emergencies. But did you know that what can be considered an emergency can significantly vary from property to property? As a result, a new hire can quickly become confused as to how to properly handle maintenance work requests if the property’s policy isn’t clearly communicated. This could result in work orders being handled out of order and open the property up to a discrimination or fair housing complaint.   Internal communication of policies and procedures is an absolute must, especially when it comes to new hires. Supervision is also a key component; making sure that if a staff member has a question, there is someone there to help. Along with this, every staff member should have access to adequate documentation as well as regular training. Keeping these lines of internal communication available, aids in workplace compliance.  Callback Policies Callback policies are another place where fair housing compliance can become an issue if there isn’t proper internal communication. Today’s properties face the challenge of sorting through multiple contact points, and phone, email, text, and web-based communication are all part of most properties’ daily communications.    Just as with maintenance requests, fair housing best prac......

Why is documentation so important? How can it help you in the event of a fair housing complaint? What are some best practices that your company should be following now? This article provides a brief overview of the value of documentation as well as some tips to ensure you and your staff are protected. Why Documentation is Important Perhaps a question is raised regarding the availability of a unit. A prospect wants to view the two-bedroom unit that a friend said was available only hours before. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.  Another scenario that we frequently see is when there has been a change in staff or management. Consider this situation; a resident comes in wanting to know what has been done regarding a complaint they lodged weeks ago with the prior manager. You look in the resident’s file and find nothing. Maybe something had been done, but now you have no documentation or proof to address the situation. Proper documentation will give your staff the information they need to provide a thorough explanation and state the facts. Without this, you are open to a possible fair housing complaint. A Fair Housing Complaint - Now What? These brief examples highlight how important documentation is. Every employee needs to be documenting every interaction they have with both existing and prospective residents. Along with this, there needs to be a regular audit completed to ensure that policies and procedures are being followed.  Documentation - Tips and Best Practices Here are some b......

Maintenance professionals interact with residents on a regular basis, often being the first team members to arrive when a repair call is scheduled. This is why fair housing training needs to be a prerequisite. We expect all our team members to be kind and courteous to residents, but they also need to know where to draw the line to avoid any misinterpretations. Scenario-based fair housing training will aid in finding a balance and avoiding costly complaints. Consider a few of the following scenarios.   Moonlighting and Favors   It is common for residents to ask maintenance professionals to take on side jobs. This can lead to some serious problems. For example, a resident offers to pay an employee to move some things. But what happens if something gets broken, goes missing, or worse yet the employee is injured. Is the company going to be able to support the employee under the circumstances? Probably not as they weren’t on the clock so to speak. Best practices dictate that your employee kindly turns down the job to avoid any possible issues. What about a favor? Doing favors for a resident is something else the employee should politely turn down. Again, something could possibly occur while the employee is helping the resident. Along with that, this can open the door to accusations of favoritism something that you definitely want to avoid. Socializing Should employees socialize with residents outside of work? As a rule, it should be against company policy. What are the benefits of h......

Fair Housing compliance and social media can co-exist. However, there can be many challenges for property management professionals. Join us as we discuss how to ensure that your social media is Fair Housing compliant.   Consistent Use of Social Media and Fair Housing Compliance If there is no content plan, then typically what happens is the traditional default of showing a picture of the pool, the gardens, and/or the front entrance sign. But this does not have to be the case. The goal with social media marketing and Fair Housing is to be diverse. Diverse marketing takes content planning. When you can strategically plan out your content over a span of time to demonstrate diversity you can set yourself up for marketing success. This takes solid communication from corporate down to the site teams.   How Does Fair Housing Apply In Marketing Ads? This is an ever-evolving topic based on what options are available on digital ad platforms. Google and Facebook have been under scrutiny for the options that are available to marketers. You can see items like location, familial status, sex, and other categories that have been made available to be specifically targeted. Obviously, this is fair housing red flag for all of us in the property management sector.  The bottom line is that it is our responsibility to be in compliance with Fair Housing no matter where we are advertising. We know the law better than any digital tool that is out there. We just have to do our......

Proper documentation can help you defend against an allegation of housing discrimination.  It's pretty safe to say that all property management companies would like to avoid a lawsuit for a Fair Housing violation if at all possible. Document Document Document We always recommend for housing providers to "document, document, and document." It is important to also understand what kind of information to include in your documentation of a particular situation so that if necessary it will serve your interests at a future time. Because we have encountered many documents of housing providers that were not as useful as they could have been, we have some recommendations for you of the kinds of information to always include. Just like party invitations your documents need to contain who, where, when, and why. It is also useful to include any other staff person or resident who was present or has knowledge of the situation. Company Forms Many companies use specific forms to document situations and complaints. Using these forms is often preferable over merely writing a narrative because often the forms prompt the employee to include all relevant and important information. If you don't use forms, it may be worthwhile to develop several for your own use. Try to describe as thoroughly and accurately as possible what was said and how it was said. For example, it is much more descriptive to state "the resident stormed into my office, shouting in a loud voice, using expletives and vulgar language" than to state "the resident......

Sexual Harassment Allegations Sexual harassment allegations are a serious matter.  The Baltimore sex-for-repairs $8 million settlement is still fairly fresh on property management companies minds.  Even more recently Uber has hit the media as another high profile company who allegedly has ignored sexual harassment in the workplace.  Obviously becoming a high profile case is the last thing a property management company wants.  This post will remind you of the absolute necessity to have policies and protocols to protect your employees and your residents. Too Friendly? It is not uncommon for sexual harassment allegations to arise within fair housing complaints. While the actions of this company referenced above appear to be egregious and extreme, even less serious actions can result in allegations of sexual harassment. For example, a maintenance employee of an apartment community commented upon the beauty of a single female resident and her young daughter. The resident reported the incident to the property manager, complaining that the maintenance employee was being overly friendly because he was trying to "hit on" her. Although the maintenance employee's comments probably would not ultimately be enough to make a case for sexual harassment, all employees should be cautioned against making remarks to applicants or residents that could be offensive sexually. Since it is difficult to determine what another person might find offensive, employees should simply refrain from overly familiar or personal comments to applicants or residents. In order to hold management responsible for sexual harassment allegations, the person being harassed must prove that management......

When was the last time you reviewed your screening policies? Prevent illegal discrimination in screening applicants by developing and practicing consistent policies.  Terrorism concerns are relevant and need to be addressed in a proactive way and not reactive.  Your team needs to be properly trained on Fair Housing compliance and also on how to properly apply any procedures and policies that you may implement. Reviewing Screening Policies In response to the concerns about terrorism, many property owners and managers are reviewing their screening procedures and policies in an effort to make those procedures as useful as possible in identifying potential problem applicants so that whenever possible those applicants will not become residents. Of course, any time a policy results in some applicants being rejected, it is important to ensure that the policy is carefully developed and fairly applied to avoid an appearance that one or more protected groups are being discriminated against. National Origin and Religion The federal Fair Housing Act requires that persons not be discriminated against on the basis of their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status and disability. The fact that some terrorists are of an identifiable national origin and religion has resulted in blatant discrimination against persons of many Asian and Middle Eastern origins and several religions including persons of the Muslim faith who are not violent fundamentalists. It is obvious that asking a person to move merely because he is from Saudi Arabia is illegal housing discrimination. It is important to remember that a......

Fair Housing advertising issues and violations are more common than you may think.  HUD provides advertising guidelines for compliance which this article covers. In case you're asking yourself why you should read this particular article, the fact is that if you work in the housing industry, you need to know your responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act, because regardless of your position, you are probably "advertising" every day.  Fair Housing advertising involves every member of your team. Fair Housing Advertising Mediums Advertising under the Fair Housing Act doesn't just mean ads in newspapers. The law says you can't "make, print, or publish. . . any notice, statement, or advertisement . . . that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on a person's race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin." That includes such things as applications, flyers, brochures, deeds, signs, banners, posters, billboards, and even pictures in your office. It also means that the things you say about your property in writing, over the phone or in person are covered. Expressing an illegal preference or limitation to one of your fellow agents, brokers, employees, prospective sellers, renters, or to any other person in connection with the sale or rental of your property is illegal. Here are two examples of illegal advertising that you may not have realized were violations of the Fair Housing Act. A maintenance man tells a passer-by that "only real Americans" lived in the apartment complex where he worked. A rental office is decorated with......

A reasonable accommodation by definition is an adjustment made in a system to accommodate or make fair the same system for an individual based on a proven need.  That is a solid definition coming from Wikipedia. Reasonable Accommodation - Resident Allergies The focus of this article will be on working with a resident who notifies management of allergies that they deal with. It can be difficult for management to provide reasonable accommodations to residents with allergies.  What can you do? What are some best practices? As many of you have experienced, it appears that the occurrences of residents with severe allergies, asthma, and multiple chemical sensitivity are increasing. These types of situations can create difficult problems for management attempting to meet the needs of the residents. They want to provide reasonable accommodations, while also not limiting the use of chemicals and products by other residents and staff. As an example, let's review the situation of Mike Jones, a resident of Happy Village. Mike has allergies to fresh paint and he has requested that no new paint be applied anywhere inside his building. The first issue is whether Mike is disabled and therefore entitled to a reasonable accommodation. Is The Allergy A Disability Or Not? The Fair Housing Act defines a disability as a mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. If Mike's symptoms are minimal, arguably he's not substantially limited by his allergies, and thus not disabled. For most of us with allergies, while the......

We are taking the alphabet, letter by letter, so perhaps you can do things a little bit better To make your community open to all, and not take an unexpected fair housing fall! And, because Fair Housing covers a lot, we’ve created a resource to print out on the spot!     A is for Animals, and you can say no To my dog, cat, or birdie, unless I can show That this critter is truly needed by me To manage better with my disability. Then dog, cat or birdie is not a pet, So accepting my assistance animal is a wise bet.   B is for Boa, as in the large snake, So that you understand that you might have to take, This reptile, or the monkey or even the horse (The latter is a miniature one, of course), Because these can be assistance animals, too. And when appropriate they move in with you.   C is for Children, they will live with you, Unless your residents are older – 55 to 62. Be careful how you restrict them with your community rules, Since perhaps except for your gyms, your spas and your pools, Your policies should reflect the behaviors you desire, From both the young and those with ages much higher.   D is for Damages, and oh, what the cost, If yours is the legal position that’s lost. From punitive damages to penalties civil, The amount you might pay could make you snivel. Communities have lost millions in some of their cases, Where fair housing violations have been the basis.   E is for Everyone, the messa......