With the 2020 presidential election less than three months away, I had an interesting question hit my desk: can a property management company restrict residents from placing political signs on their exterior windows, doors, and/or balconies? With some exceptions (noted below), the answer looks to generally be yes. Now, of course residents have First Amendment
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HUD Charges Georgia Property Owner With Disability Discrimination For Failure to Approve a Reasonable Accommodation Request Related to the Rental Due Date
Here is a fact pattern professional apartment management should work to avoid. An applicant signs a lease for an apartment home. Rent is due on the first of the month. As is typical in many residential leases, late fees are due if the rent is not paid after a few days. The resident is disabled…
Answering Fair Housing Defense Blog Reader Questions/Comments
Catching up with some Fair Housing Defense reader email this week. With the caveat that this blog entry does not constitute legal advice, here we go:
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COVID Eviction Pause Update — Check With Your Local Court
As written here and elsewhere, navigating traditional landlord/tenant legal matters during the past few months has been complicated. Management wants and needs to have compassion for all of our residents who have been impacted by the global pandemic. I know many leasing offices and legal departments have been evaluating hardships and literally working side by…
HUD Awards Over $40 Million for Fair Housing Enforcement and Training
If professional apartment management thought that fair housing enforcement would stop because of a global pandemic, well – think again. Last week, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) announced over $40 million in grants to local fair housing advocacy groups from coast to coast. These individual grants, running in the hundreds of…
HUD Charges Wisconsin Property Owner/Manager with Disability Discrimination Related to an Assistance Animal
Pursuant to a release issued last week, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) stated it charged the owner and manager of apartment homes in Wisconsin with housing discrimination for allegedly refusing to rent to two individuals because of a claimed disability and related need for an assistance animal.
The HUD charge asserts…
HUD Settles Racial Discrimination Fair Housing Case for $35,000
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved a $35,000 settlement agreement resolving a fair housing complaint filed against the owner and manager of apartment communities on Long Island (in New York) addressing allegations that various employees discriminated against applicants based on their race. As described in the complaint and conciliation agreement,…
Supreme Court Expands Employment Anti-Discrimination Laws to Protect the LGBTQ Community. Fair Housing is Likely Next.
In a decision which will likely expand the scope of the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) by analogy, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded earlier today that a 1960’s era civil rights statute protects gay and transgender workers. By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,…
COVID-19: One Request is a Reasonable Accommodation and One is Not (But May Be Worth a Compassionate Release)
I wanted to offer up two related COVID-19 fair housing scenarios I have seen recently in my discussions with apartment management clients.
As written here (and elsewhere) regularly, our Fair Housing Act (FHA) requires management to make what is known as a “reasonable accommodation” in our rules, policies or practices as needed to permit an…
COVID-19 and Housing Eviction Proceedings
With just a few days left in May, apartment owners, management companies, and residents are set to deal with another month of rents due in a global pandemic. The good news (I hope) is that states are starting the process of opening again with social distancing. The belief is that many employees who were furloughed…