Posted by:
ThinkingOutLoud
(
)
Date: May 29, 2012 03:00AM
You have the absolute right to choose who you rent to, if you have 4 or fewer units in one home or property and you live in one of those 4 units.
That is not true in most other circumstances.
If you own and rent out the house next door or across the street on a different property at a different address, then Fair Housing Act laws 91968) and Landlord Tenant Act (1954)laws, apply to you.
You can accept the more qualified of two equal applicants, but you cannot refuse to rent to one or the other, based on quite a few other things.
You are required to follow federal law and cannot discriminate, whether it is in renting to, considering qualifications/references/credit and income for renting, or in showing or allowing a property to be shown to a prospective renter.
Fair Housing/Equal Housing laws, and city ordinances in many places, state that in regard to renting, you must review references and income status equally; advertise using non-discriminatory language, including not using certain code and buzz words designed to attract or repel certain protected classes.
Fair Housing Act laws cover 5 protected classes of people: race, creed (religion), national origin (ethnicity, country of birth or cultural identity), disability, and familial status (whether or not you have kids or will have them).
If you have rental property you do not live on, or in, yourself, all of these equal housing statutes most likely do apply to you. The house next door or across the street does probably fall under those rules where you live. Please check.
If it does, it means you can't just refuse to rent to single moms with kids, or families whose only income is public or disability assistance, alimony or support from other than standard wages/standard sources of income; to people you think might be foreign or non-citizens; might be of a religion you do not like, etc. Not if they meet the income ratio and credit requirements you have already set for all other persons who have rented, or to whom you would rent, that same property.
You cannot charge extra security deposits or fees, except set asides for pet or physical damage above normal wear and tear, and must apply that extra security deposit requirement to all persons living there and refund it under the same rules for all.
After two years in most states, you must give all earned interest on that deposit money back to the tenant and must do so for all years 2-?; all deposits must be kept completely separate from rents, and separate from and not intermingled with personal or other commercial/business interest funds you may have.
You cannot apply differing standards or set higher amounts for deposits, to families with kids or people with disabilities.
For the disabled with companion animals of any kind (even ferrets, yes FERRETS) you cannot charge a pet damage deposit above the norm, or charge extra for their requiring handgrips to be screwed into the shower wall thru the tile, or railings down the stairs or hallways, etc. They will have to pay to install these items for their own use, but you cannot charge them with that work having been done as damage, when they leave. Those things fall under "reasonable accommodation for the disabled".
If their ferret damages all your wallboard by eating it up, because they let the critter run loose, then yes, when they leave you can assess penalties above the norm for that damage--but you cannot ask anyone in the 5 protected classes to pay extra when they first rent, for their being part of that class.
Keep records of all phone calls regarding requests to view the property, paper copies of all notes pertaining to actual visits to the property, copies of all ads placed (and make sure your ads do not only appear in religious or ethnic/social or private club publications)--use the city paper that everyone reads, too; and always, always, always use a written lease which your lawyer has vetted first.
Lots of books have this stuff outlined for you, and community colleges and institutes of real estate management (IREM) all over the place offer low cost courses, too.
Check with your local township office to see if you need an occupancy permit for the house you plan to rent, or an inspection first; make sure that the house has a smoke detector, and the proper, allowable door locks on all exit doors. if a basement or guest house not originally intended to be counted as bedroom in your county, is now to be used as one, I doubly insist you get that inspection. Don't wait for an elctrical short or fire to prove it isn't safe to occupy.
Get extra liability insurance for both your rental and your private property. Consider setting up a PLLC limited company to process your rentals thru.
Ignorance is not a defense if the equal housing office or permits office gets hold of you--or one of their undercover testers comes to your property and discovers you or your manager is not doing things properly/within the law.
Make sure you get copies of The Landlord Tenant Act, the federal Equal Housing mandates, and any and all local ordinances pertaining to rentals. Then follow them.
I was a manager of a metropolitan, seniors-only high rise, a full market, boat in boat out, mid-rise and was a regional mgr for several large apartment communities; I have been a landlord myself, renting my own private properties most of my life, as was my dad before me with his own.
Lots of people do all kinds of things, and do it for years because everybody else does it and gets away with it. But those who get caught deliberately violating the rules, sometimes lose their houses and their shirts when those cases come to court.
Please take the time to learn the rules, before playing this game.