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…

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…

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…

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…

In a press release issued last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved a settlement agreement concluding a disability housing discrimination complaint against the owners and property managers at a community in Pennsylvania. The total amount to be paid by the Respondents is $80,000. In their complaint, two residents asserted that…

Although the economic and personal impact of the global pandemic continues to dominate the headlines, I am seeing HUD (as well as various state, city, and county agencies) ramping up efforts on pending housing discrimination complaints. As a part of the Fair Housing Act, investigators are dual tasked when a complaint is filed: (1) to…

The United States Congress (as well as any number of state, city, and county legislatures) have been at work on various pandemic relief efforts (as they should be).  As these efforts go forward, the apartment management industry needs to be aware the next set of legislative initiatives that might, for example, mandate that property owners…

For many Americans who live in apartment homes, rent for May 2020 is due tomorrow. As noted earlier this month, a best guess is that around 70% of residents made their April 2020 rent payments on time. That is, of course, a lower number than we would have expected under normal circumstances as each week…