It is critical that you avoid discrimination whenever you own rental property. Any Bloomfield Hills property manager or owner can be accused of housing discrimination unless the Fair Housing Act is followed appropriately. Serious legal issues can arise from failure to comply with these regulations.
In order to comply with the Fair Housing Act, you must ensure that your property is available to be shown to anyone interested in renting from you. Typically, any interested potential tenants will call to the Bloomfield Hills property manager to ask questions about the unit prior to the showing. It is important that you provide the same information to all callers. Offering different terms and conditions to different people could make you liable for discrimination. Making attempts to deter certain people can be a violation of the Fair Housing Act. Information that should be covered during the initial phone call include the property amenities, size, location, rent amount, etc.
Additionally, you should construct your rental application with the fair housing guidelines and standards included. Having an attorney review the rental application forms prior to using them with potential tenants can help you avoid problems later. In the end, any application that you deny or accept should be based on valid facts and not your own personal opinions as a Birmingham property manager.
You may want to consider occupancy restrictions when you are taking applications. You can make restrictions about the number of people that live in your unit. This is usually a justifiable restriction that can be backed up with certain occupancy codes. You do need to make sure that your restrictions are fair, and not discriminatory to certain populations, such as families with children. This is a common fair housing complaint you should be aware of ahead of time, as overly restrictive occupancy guidelines can be discriminatory toward families with several children
The laws regarding occupancy standards and restrictions are different in various states. However, common sense usually prevails. For example, you would not want to allow 8 people to live in a 1,000 square foot unit with two bedrooms, it just wouldn’t make sense.
There are technically no restrictions under the Fair Housing Act regarding the number of people that can occupy a residence; so any restrictions you use should be applied to all tenants, regardless of race, national origin, color, family status, religion or handicapping condition.
A fair standard is often allowing two people per bedroom. As a landlord or Bloomfield Hills property manager, you will want to find out at the time of application how many people the potential tenant intends to live with and decide if it is reasonable. Remember that there are no specific guidelines, so be sure that you consider whether the unit can safely accommodate more people if necessary, and allow so when the family needs call for it.
