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The DOJ recently issued a warning that municipal “crime-free” rental housing and “nuisance” property ordinances may run afoul of the Fair Housing Act. We explain what that means for landlords and give you a strategy of what to do if you actually face the dilemma of having to violate federal law to comply with local law.
Tenant screening has become a $1 billion industry. Like many landlords across America, you may look to third-party screening companies to gather and analyze key information about rental prospects and issue a report assessing how likely they are to pay rent and obey the key terms of their lease. But while enabling you to steer clear of problem tenants and make sounder rental decisions, relying on outside reports to decide whether to accept or reject applicants carries potential fair housing risks.
Follow our five best practices when using AI-based digital ad platforms.
Savvy use of digital media for marketing purposes can be a game changer for landlords. But it can also get them into fair housing trouble. The same artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithmic technologies that empower you to streamline and target your marketing can also be used, whether deliberately or inadvertently, to exclude groups the fair housing laws protect.
Firms that train staff to embrace diversity are more likely to be in tune with the principles of fair housing law.
“[XYZ Company] recognizes the principles of fair housing and diversity as core values.”
How many times have you seen phrases like that in a real estate company’s mission statement? It’s as if “fair housing” and “diversity” are mere synonyms of each other.
While it may seem like routine business, responding to transfer requests may have significant fair housing implications.
Let’s play a quick game of fair housing word association in the multifamily leasing context:
Housing discrimination.
For many, this phrase summons up images of landowners seeking to avoid leasing their property to persons of particular races, nationalities, or other protected characteristics. And that, in a sense, is rental housing discrimination in its traditional form.