I'm evany Caldwell with Rei investment society. And this particular section, we are going to talk about 10 things landlords should know about fair housing. Now keep in mind, this particular course is regarding property management, how to start a property management company. But as a property manager, you act on behalf of the landlord. So now you become the new landlord for our property and for those apartments. So the first number one thing is advertising.

When it comes to advertising, you have to make sure that when you advertise in a property number one, you're going to stay clear of certain words such as great for young couples. It may sound like you're being discriminatory with family who has children. You also don't want to say anything like oh, two bedroom, two bathroom condo in a safe neighborhood, very exclusive area that is considered basically stereotyping. You're basically saying We only rent to certain type of people. Well, the question is what type of people do you rent to? If I say I want to live here, I want to live here.

I don't need to know if it's a safe neighborhood, because as a landlord, as a property manager, and even as a real estate agent, you cannot determine what's the safe neighborhood? Or what's an exclusive neighborhood? The only person that could determine that is the person who's going to live there. That's the decision they need to make because you have told them, You know what, when he asked you, is this a safe neighborhood? Well, I can't really answer that question. But what I would suggest is, why don't you drive through the neighborhood on the weekends?

What I could suggest is why don't you try Driving through the neighborhood in the evening time, that is what you want to do, but you want to stay steer of certain words that can be taken as discriminatory or stereotype or racism at the end of the advertisement landlords property management's should always use the Fair Housing logo or disclosure disclaimer that basically says this community does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability or familiar the photographs need to be carefully considered when you're using doing advertising. If you're unsure what type of photos to use, speak with an attorney. And when I say photos needs to be, you need to be cautious when it comes to photos. Make sure the photos that you're putting don't have people in there. Make sure that if you're posting Apartment For Rent, there's nothing that could be considered as if it's stereotype.

So if you're gonna post an apartment for rent, just post the apartment for rent, meaning it's a bare apartment, there's nothing in there. If there is furniture in there, just be real cautious of the angles, you're taking the pictures whereas you're not disclosing that pictures of individuals who currently live there, or where you can look at the photo and tell that that is the African American couple there or the Asian family there or the Hispanic family there, or white family. So you never should be able to under no circumstances, be able to tell who lived there currently. So that's number one, advertising, stary. Number two, steering. Don't steer the potential prospective tenants from the neighborhood.

If they say that they want to live in that neighborhood, that's where they want to live. They know exactly what apartment building they want to move to. They know exactly what community they want to move to. So don't sit there and say, Okay, well, you know what you notice, Mr. Mrs. Smith is a Caucasian family. And you go Oh, in Chicago Well, you know, because I'm from Chicago. And so in Chicago, there is the north side, you might want to go to the north side, because over here, it might not be what you're looking for, which is on the south side.

Well, the thing is with the south side and Chicago and then depending on the city and state that you're in, there are certain areas that's predominantly African American certain areas is predominantly Caucasian, certain areas, that's predominantly Asians. But the fact is, I'm African American. And if I say I want to move to Chinatown, and I see a building in Chinatown I want to live in, that's where I want to live. Do not steer me from where I'm telling you, I want to live. So that's steering. The other thing about steering is, if let's say you have a person that is to say with their handicap, and they want to see the recreational area, don't tell them they can't see the recreational area.

Don't even assume they don't want to see the recreational area just because You see that they handicap, just because they handicap does not mean that they cannot enjoy their recreational area, who's to say that they have a physical therapist in home physical therapist who comes to see them. And this is the type of community that they've chosen he chose in his community because they knew he had a recreational area and a workout facility. They chose this because they're in home therapist can actually give them physical therapy there. So as a landlord and a property manager, you should not could not and never, ever, under no circumstances, keep a person that is handicapped from seeing any recreational areas. Just because you're assuming, oh, they're gonna fall old because they can't use it. Absolutely not.

That is considered steering. Number three screening applicants when it comes to screening application under the Fair Housing law. You have to treat everyone the exact same, the landlord should have a written rental policy detailing the criteria necessary for approval for the tenants to live at the property. The rental guidelines and a policy should basically include the availability policy, the rental criteria, employment history, the employment income, the credit standards, and any explanation of any derogatory credit. So here, I'll give you that example. If you have john has a 700 credit score, and he makes one times the income to qualify for this apartment.

Okay. Now the level requirements is john should have at least a 600 credit score. So it sounds like he qualifies. But in actuality, john don't have to three times the rental income. Suffice to pay the rent. That's the way the landlord looks at it.

That's the way the property manager Look at it. So even though the rental criteria for credit was 600, he didn't meet it when it comes to the income. So what you do for one needs to be equivalent equal to all of the potential applicants all the way across. The other thing is questions include on the application should not ask about any physical or mental disabilities. And the landlord should limit questions about drug or alcohol use, as well as any lawsuits. Under no circumstances.

Those questions should really even be asked. Now they can have let's say, a drug free building. Absolutely. And that could be in the house rules that I will discuss that they cannot have drugs on on the premises, or it's a no smoking building. But again, for application purposes, everything needs to be equal all the way across asking questions. Regarding evictions, prior money judgments bankruptcies, why perspectives are leaving their current landlord are acceptable, and may be provided for more information.

So again, if the landlord says, I don't want anybody who has any judgments in any bankruptcies or recent bankruptcy, again, john got a 700 credit score. But in this case, we just found out john have a part time job. So he does have to three times the income. So now he qualifies. Well, as of now he does. But now we find out john has a judgment and our recent bankruptcy.

The landlord don't want that. So he's disqualified unless maybe there is an acceptable reason for it. And if john can provide an acceptable reason for it, maybe he went through a divorce. Maybe the reason he did a bankruptcy was because he had a bunch of parking tickets, and in order to get his license back either without bankruptcy, but He's in a repayment plan. And outside of that, everything else is positive on his employment, his credit history, his previous housing history, everything is perfect. So in that particular case, john may actually get approved, but once a written policy is created, the landlord should expect trick.

A here is in compliance with his written policy. Additionally, landlords needs to keep good records of each applicants and inquiries. Number four occupancy standards. In 1996, Congress enacted a law based upon 19 9100 memo stating that a two persons bedroom per occupancy is was standard and was acceptable. So what this basically means is, if you have a couple and a baby that can work, it can still work because it also goes back to is not just the two bedrooms With the situation, but it's also how big the living spaces so if there's let's say a large living space on top of the bedroom, so maybe it's a living room and dining room and then it's a one bedroom, that's acceptable. Many housing experts believe that emphasize do not even count when it comes to calculating his occupancy standards anyway.

But now if you got to two adults that's applying, and you have two teenage children, especially a boy and a girl versus two of the same sex, and then you have an infant, that's a problem. We need a two bedroom here, we definitely need a two bedroom. So it is okay to actually nine that application because again, you apply basically saying that it was only going to be two people living here or two parties and an infant in a one bedroom. You never said that it was going to be for grown bodies here basically. And it's one day room, unacceptable. And now Because for the application to be denied apartment rules number five is that absolutely acceptable for landlord to have a set of house rules for all residents to live by the house rules should be basic and non discriminatory rules should be written so they are applicable to all residents and not just a specific group of residents rule stating children show not rough house in the hallway may be discriminatory because when you saying that you basically saying children are bad that's basically what you're saying.

If you're gonna say anything. Residents and guests should not run through the hallway period point blank you're not saying young old white black you not saying that. You're saying do not run in the hallways no running allow us a general term such as resident guests should keep the rule bias fair and applicable to all residents. Rules must be enforced uniformly against all residents. And records regarding rule violations needs to be kept. So you should always have like, if you have especially if it's a large community apartment building, and you have tenants tenant in 202 part of the house rules is this is a smoke free building, no smoking and in on the premises, you have signs up the clearly says no smoking and the lease, they signed the lease that says no smoking inside the lease.

And then also in your moving package. You do have the house rules that says no smoking. Well guess what, if you find them smoking, you can actually go ahead and write them up because again, the house rules needs to be enforced. And then when you have this record, make sure to include the time and date and the matter of the violation. This needs to be enforceable and it needs to be uniform all the way across. Also, there's a rule say no children on the floor in the pool area.

Discriminatory, while the rules saying children under 12 must be supervised by an adult or over 18. That is not discriminatory. What were you saying children under four, you basically say no kids allowed at the pool. As long as there's an adult present. It shouldn't even matter. So when you but again, it needs to say children under 12 must be supervised by an adult, over 18. something to that effect, but when you start to put specific ages like toddlers, discriminatory, as always, landlords shall consult with their state in regard to these particular laws.

Reasonable Accommodation number six, a reasonable accommodation is residents request that when it comes to making repairs to the particular apartment that they're in for the purpose of reasonable accommodation, for the purpose of because they are disabled, the level should be willing to do that. So for an example, if you The tenant that's currently living there is in a wheelchair, and they need the bars in the rally mode of bars and a bathroom lower for reasonable accommodation to a system, then the landlord should be able to do that because as long as it does not impose a hardship on the landlord to make those reasonable accommodations, then the landlord should do it. Also, another part of the reasonable accommodations is for an example, if the tenant, let's just say this particular tenant is a new tenant, they want to potentially move to the building. Unfortunately, they can move on the first floor, but there are stairs there.

Well, if the landlord is willing to make a reasonable accommodation for a lift to be installed in front of the building, then that's a reasonable accommodation, however, and this particular reason more accommodation, generally, the tenant would need to pay for that because putting a lift in front of the building It's gonna be expensive. And then the question is this tenant would need to be responsible for removing it also, but that is part of reasonable accommodation. Reasonable modification should not actually be confused with reasonable accommodation, because the lift is part of the modification. So landlords may require a resident to pay for the modification to the property and require those modifications to be removed when the resident vacate the property. And it needs to be the apartment needs to be given back to the landlord as the same way it was when it was given to them.

If the modifications were for something that federal law already required a landlord to have in place then the landlord would be responsible for the cost of the modification level should check to determine where their financial responsibilities are in common areas. For example, you know, installing and removing the removal of the modification With modifications or just reasonable modifications as a whole number eight, record keeping landlords needs to keep records on all prospective residents. In addition to current past presidents, this is extremely important leatherworking create a system of guests cars as a log of relevant information. So if you have a, you know, a big building, they want anything that you can actually do with that key pop. Because remember, each key five is actually kind of registered to each unit. And you pretty much know when they're coming and going.

If there's a bit community, then sometimes you may actually ask the people especially if they are a guest to sign in and out. But most importantly, the most important type of record keeping that you need to keep is if someone when the tenant moves in and when the tenant moves out. You need to make a keep a record a log of any calls made by the residents. It's the rescue ever saw the property? I'm sorry if the prospective resident ever saw the property, when did they see the property which particular unit that they see. If they are a current resident, he needs to keep a log of any work that has been done to their unit.

This is extremely important for several different reasons. Being able to produce consistent records showing non discriminatory applications of written screening criteria in every case can usually be successful when it's time and unfortunately, if you have to defend your client or yourself as a landlord in a fair housing claim, number nine, employee training levels and property managers need to ensure that there's a written policy to avoid kinds of harassment, particularly sexual harassment. Every time a new employee joins the staff. There should be a training meeting about fair housing law and how to comply with them. The meeting should include copies of the memos regarding policies about how to comply with fair housing and what can happen if those laws are not comply with. And basically let them know that you're in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

Number 10. Landlords should not be afraid to evict a resident for legitimate reason of cause of fear of housing violation. And that's why it's really important for residents files to have good record keeping any type of complaints that may have taken place, the resident being a nuisance landlord should always document include in a residence file, the following information, warning letters eviction notices written complaints by third parties, written logs kept by the management, police records, if any photographs of the particular unit one of the reasons you may have photographs of the unit is because maybe you did an inspection like let's say annual inspection, you know, or you have an exterminator to come in which a lot of big property management Companies have exterminators to come in every three months or every six months. And during the extermination period, of course, that was part of an inspection process while you get there and you see grease all over the stove, garbage all over the place.

I mean, this can be considered, you know, inhabitable, so you definitely want to make sure you take pictures of that but also that needs to be in the house rules as far as upkeep of the building as a whole and upkeep of your unit as a whole. All information is actually contained. In this particular video can actually be found in the Fair Housing Act 42 USC a 3601. The information also can be obtained from the Federal Housing and Urban Development website www.hud.gov. If you have any questions regarding how to start a property management company, please do not hesitate to follow me and reach out and I will definitely make sure I will provide you as much information as possible for you to become a professional and experience successful property manager. I'm evany Caldwell with Rei this society and good luck starting your property management company.