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And I think if everyone would keep that in mind, that would help a lot where I see companies getting into trouble is when For instance, on that tour that I was talking about earlier, where the leasing agent is walking a prospect through the property, when the leasing agent tries to encourage that prospect to lease an apartment there because of who her neighbors are going to be or not be that's where problems can rise.

Excellent point. And again, everyone we're going to have and again, it's not a comprehensive list. And one of the things that we're talking about Kathi, as we're preparing for the show is that even though we're going to provide this list of words and phrases, what to say, what not to say, and really think of the context of what you're writing your copy it's not an exhaustive list. It doesn't cover every single item. And what's even more interesting is when we look back 10 years ago, 15 years ago everything has changed as far as what is acceptable phrases.

And maybe a few years from now, this list will need to be updated based on how culture has changed and even just the english language or any language for that matter. Wouldn't you agree? Kathi Williams: Absolutely. We all have to move on with our language based on what's acceptable, what's offensive. And one of my concerns, when we talk about advertising is that there are a lot of probably even lawyers in this country that would discourage use of some words because it just might offend somebody somewhere.

And from my perspective, and from the laws perspective that isn't the standard. The standard is, is this term is the use of this term in this way going to offend what we call in the law, a reasonable person.

Not the most sensitive person there ever could be, but your basic reasonable person, if that word or phrase would discourage me as a reasonable person from wanting to live there because of my protected category.

And that's what we always have to talk about with Fair Housing because of my race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status or disability.

And that's just the federal categories. There's also some state and local categories. Did I put in national origin?

Jonathan, if I didn't that's another one there. Kathi Williams: Okay. With the seven federal categories we're talking race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. Kathi Williams: And then there are on top of that the state and local categories. When we're looking at advertisements we're saying, "Would this advertisement," which also as I said, could be a statement, "would it discourage me from wanting to live there.

We don't want to do that. We're trying to market a property without encouraging or discouraging someone because of their protected category. And we're going to do that hopefully in a way that would again, going back to this reasonable person's standard that would not encourage or discourage someone who's this reasonable person because of their protected category.

There are a lot of property companies, management companies in this country that have shied away from so much advertising options because they are afraid of those hyper sensitive people who might get offended with the use of some terms. And some of them have limited their marketing actions, I think probably excessively because of their fear that someone somewhere might take offense. Kathi Williams: I think that's kind of a shame because I always think of Fair Housing as something to be knowledgeable of, sensitive about without being so afraid of it, that you aren't able to do your business in the way it needs to be done.

And I don't think Fair Housing does that. I think if you view it as kind of as a whole, that you don't have to be afraid of it. And marketing is one of those examples of where people and companies have gotten so afraid of it, that they've stopped doing an interesting job of marketing. Jonathan Saar: Yeah. That kind of raises a thought. And I keep myself up to date. Obviously you do way more than I do as far as what kind of Fair Housing legislation is going on, what type of court cases are going on, what is HUD focusing on?

And there are cases that are out there that do talk about incorrect advertising that violate the Fair Housing Act. But by a percentage perspective, if this is a fair question, from what you've seen is it more the training of the individual person and how they understand and comprehend the Fair Housing Act that typically, HUD Fair Housing testers focus on versus the poster that's on the wall or the Facebook post?

Where have you seen like the higher percentage of what HUD is paying attention to when it comes to Fair Housing violations, does that make sense? Kathi Williams: It does. Advertising is actually not one of the more active areas of enforcement.

Enforcement is out there, it's possible. I think we all heard that HUD has filed a charge against Facebook and that was related to advertising. That's certainly got a lot of notoriety and I'm happy to talk about that case and what the issues are in that case.

But basically you don't see a lot of advertising cases these days. There were a lot of cases about when the law changed and familial status became a protected category because of all the properties and some still do advertise themselves as active adult communities. There are no such things under the Fair Housing Act as active adult communities. Those kind of things still pop up. I see them on billboards in Florida all the time, a hungry Fair Housing Agency is going to jump on that, they're looking for funding and they're going to jump on that as an enforcement action.

HUD isn't necessarily looking for those kinds of cases anymore. A case has to be pretty large before the government is going to get excited about it in this day and age. And certainly there are some general areas that, which is why we're talking about this today to avoid. But I don't think the average marketing department of a housing management company needs to lose a lot of sleep over being so afraid of Fair Housing violations.

I love it. That resonated with me. I think it really provides a balanced approach to our audience to really, again, not to ignore. These comments are not all right, well, now we can have a free for all with your advertising.

No, no, not [inaudible ].. Jonathan Saar: No, not saying that, no, it's not a free for all. However, it does provide some excellent context for what you can do, which leads to. Let's talk about Facebook for a minute, that particular case and build that into the overall what we're seeing out there. I have a few thoughts. I review property management, social media channels, daily. They're in my feed, on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter. Over 10 years ago, I made this statement and I'm still making the statement today.

Your pool is beautiful. There's been no doubt about it. There's no doubt about it. Jonathan Saar: It's a great pool, it's a great view. Here we are right now Kathi, with in the current climate even more limited opportunities for in-person interactions with our communities.

With respect to new construction, the fair housing poster must be posted at the beginning of construction and maintained throughout the period of construction and sale or rental. HUD does not require the posting and maintaining a fair housing poster on vacant land.

All real estate brokers and agents must post and maintain a fair housing poster at all of their places of business.

Effect of Failure to Display Poster Any person who claims to have been injured by a discriminatory housing practice may file a complaint with HUD. All rights reserved. Comments 1 Subscribe to Comments Comment. Please log in or register to comment.

Log in Join now. Show All Comments. Ryan Shaughnessy. Back to Top. Newer Post. Rainmaker , Even if you don't establish a criminal background check, you're not going to accept every applicant.

Rejecting applicants for legitimate credit or income or character reasons should not invite a complaint if you follow certain procedures. As noted, you should establish written rental criteria that help all applicants understand how their applications will be screened.

Then apply your criteria consistently. If you reject an applicant, send a letter explaining why and keep excellent records. So you've approved an application and the tenant moves in. Shortly after the tenant moves in, however, you start getting complaints. The newest tenant is apparently harassing other tenants. And you're also getting complaints that they're playing their stereo too loud.

What should you do? When tenants break the rules, you should apply the consequences fairly, consistently, and according to established procedures. What consequences you apply depends on your procedures and on the records you've kept. Some of the records that you should keep include complaints that tenants file against other tenants; complaints that involve the police; letters that you sent to and received from the tenant about lease violations; and any other relevant letters and information.

Keeping detailed and accurate records will be important if you have to defend why you evicted the tenant. If you don't keep good records, proving that you evicted a tenant for a non-discriminatory reason may be more difficult.

How are maintenance and repair requests handled in your complex? Does your staff process repair requests from some tenants more quickly than from others? If so, it could lead to a fair housing complaint. Generally, repairs should be handled in the order that they are received, with emergency repairs taking precedence over routine repairs. Tenants need to understand that routine and non-emergency repairs may take days, or even longer, to complete.

Your tenants should understand how you process repair requests, and they should understand how long it will take before you get to their request. If an emergency repair takes you or your staff away from a scheduled routine repair, call the affected tenant and explain what happened.

Among the things that you can do to reduce the probability of having a housing complaint filed against you is to be professional, be consistent, communicate with your tenants, and keep excellent records.

While reasonable modifications involve allowing a tenant with a disability to make a physical change to his unit or to a common area, reasonable accommodation requires the landlord to change or modify some rule, practice, policy, or service when doing so may be necessary to afford the tenant equal opportunity to use and enjoy the unit.

For more information on reasonable accommodations, visit Housing and Disabilities: Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications. Occupancy standards involve how many people may live in a unit. In December , the U. Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD published a statement of the standards that it reviews when evaluating a housing provider's occupancy standards, to determine whether actions under the provider's policies may constitute discriminatory conduct under the Fair Housing Act on the basis of familial status which means on the basis of having children under age 18 in the family.

However, the reasonableness of any occupancy policy is rebuttable. Thus in reviewing occupancy cases HUD will consider the size and number of the bedrooms and other special circumstances. The following principles and hypothetical examples should assist you in determining whether the size of the bedrooms or special circumstances would make an occupancy policy unreasonable.

Consider two theoretical situations in which a housing provider refused to permit a family of five to rent a two-bedroom dwelling based on a "two people per bedroom" policy. In the first, the complainants are a family of five who applied to rent an apartment with two large bedrooms and spacious living areas.

In the second, the complainants are a family of five who applied to rent a mobile home space on which they planned to live in a two-bedroom mobile home. Depending on the other facts, issuance of a charge might be warranted in the first situation, but not in the second. The size of the bedrooms also can be a factor suggesting that a determination of no reasonable cause is appropriate.

For example, if a mobile home is advertised as a "two-bedroom" home, but one bedroom is extremely small, depending on all the facts, it could be reasonable for the park manager to limit occupancy of the home to two people. The following hypotheticals involve two housing providers who refused to permit three people to share a bedroom.

In the first, the complainants are two adult parents who applied to rent a one-bedroom apartment with their infant child, and both the bedroom and the apartment are large. In the second, the complainants are a family of two adult parents and one teenager who applied to rent a one-bedroom apartment. Depending on the other facts, issuance of a charge might be warranted in the first hypothetical, but not in the second.

The following imaginary situations illustrate special circumstances involving unit configurations. Two condominium associations each reject a purchase by a family of two adults and three children, based on a rule limiting sales to buyers who satisfy a "two-people per bedroom" occupancy policy. The first association manages a building in which the family of five sought to purchase a unit consisting of two bedrooms plus a den or study. The second manages a building in which the family of five sought to purchase a two-bedroom unit without a study or den.

Depending on the other facts, a charge might be warranted in the first situation, but not in the second. In addition to physical considerations such as the size of each bedroom and the overall size and configuration of the dwelling, the Department will consider limiting factors identified by housing providers, such as the capacity of septic, sewer or other building systems.

If a dwelling is governed by state or local government occupancy requirements, and the housing provider's occupancy policies reflect those requirements, HUD would consider the governmental requirements as a special circumstance tending to indicate that the housing provider's occupancy policies are reasonable. Other relevant factors supporting a reasonable cause recommendation based on the conclusion that the occupancy policies are pretextual would include evidence that the housing provider has:.

The Building Officials and Code Administrators handbook states that for health and safety reasons you need 70 square feet of bedroom space for one occupant. If you have more than one occupant you need 50 square feet per person. If you have a unit with a one-bedroom that measures 10 x 8 or 80 square feet it would be too small for two people.

But if you have a unit with a one-bedroom that measures 10 x 16 it may be big enough for three people. Housing providers should strive to balance the requirement to implement a reasonable occupancy standard against their right to protect their property from overcrowding.

Housing providers should also strive to balance the requirement to implement a reasonable occupancy standard against their right to protect their investment. Under some circumstances, a large unit with three bedrooms may reasonably accommodate seven or eight people without creating an overcrowded situation and without jeopardizing the housing provider's investment. Under other circumstances, a unit with three bedrooms may only reasonably accommodate five people.

Each situation and the complex has to be evaluated based on its own merit. This free training teaches you about legal rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Law. The course, conducted by a board-approved education provider, gives you the basic foundation of Fair Housing Law. An Agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia.