For property managers, safety is key. When you manage a property, you’re responsible for a great deal, and the safety and upkeep of your property is one of the most important priorities you have. Without proper upkeep on your property, you’re setting yourself up for problems. However, if you manage many different properties, it can be hard to keep track of everything that needs to be done.
Not to worry. One of the best ways to stay up to date with maintenance is to use property management maintenance software. It helps you keep track of both regularly scheduled maintenance tasks and one-time issues. It also gives you the ability to access your data and deal with problems from anywhere.
Legal Issues for Property Managers
As a manager, you accept the responsibility for the safety of the residents and staff on your property. This includes their health and physical well-being. If residents are injured on your property, they may choose to take legal action against you, citing poor maintenance practices as the reason they were hurt. This could prove to be quite costly for you and can damage your reputation. You can help protect yourself from liability by simply using technology to manage the maintenance of the properties.
Preventing Hazards on Your Property
Hazards come in a number of different forms. Property managers have to be conscious of both physical and biological hazards. Physical hazards like broken steps are often easily fixable and even preventable with routine maintenance. Routine maintenance can also help prevent leaks in plumbing, gas lines, and HVAC units.
Biological hazards are also preventable, despite their more ominous name. For instance, inspect your property regularly for mold and mildew, and if any is found, clean it up promptly. The sooner you take care of potential hazards, the better off your residents will be.
AppFolio’s Work Order Feature Helps You More Easily Maintain Your Properties
With AppFolio’s property management software, maintenance doesn’t have to be a constant headache. You can access information about your property and manage work orders from within the software to get the problems fixed promptly. By responding to maintenance requests quickly, you’ll be able to take care of minor issues before they become more serious ones that threaten the safety and well-being of your residents. Who can argue with that kind of efficiency?
Our most recent webinar with Grace Hill featured Fair Housing Expert, Trainer Donna. Donna covered a range of issues and offered many great best practices on how to stay compliant with Fair Housing laws. The webinar was so popular that we hit our maximum attendance again! Below is the recorded webinar.
Our next webinar is in May, featuring Lisa Trosien. Stay tuned for more details!
Are apartment complexes allowed to restrict large dog owners to the first floor?
Yes! Dogs are not a protected class. However, if a person with a disability was to request a higher floor level it would be a reasonable accommodation.
Can you elaborate on the breed limitations for service animals?
A housing provider may exclude an assistance animal from a housing community when that animal’s behavior poses a direct threat and its owner takes no effective action to control the animal’s behavior so that the threat is mitigated or eliminated. The direct threat provision of the Fair Housing Act requires there be an existence of a significant risk, not a remote or speculative risk. The determination cannot be the result of fear or speculation about the types of harm or damage an animal may cause, or evidence about harm or damage caused by other similar animals.
Do we have to simply take their word for it that their pet is a service animal? What kind of documentation can we ask for?
You can request a letter from his/her health care provider verifying that he has a disability (but no details about it) and has a disability-related need for this animal.
Is there a limit to the number of service animals allowed per resident?
If a health care provider says the person needs 3 animals for their disability then that’s the requirement for that person. But you then need to determine if this is a reasonable accommodation for your area, city ordinance, etc.
Where may I go to find information about the rights of a landlord when there is harassment coming from residents?
Be sure to discuss the situation with your supervisor, human resource department or corporate attorney to get directions or guidelines for handling. Most companies have policy and procedures for this sort of harassment.
If I received some phone calls throughout the day where I stated that we had a certain type of apartment available and than an application is returned from the day before along with a deposit, do I have to call back everybody I spoke with to let them know the apartment is no longer available? Should I always state that I have a certain number or type available at this time but that could change at any given moment?
When letting telephone prospects know what’s available it’s a good idea to let them know that availability could change. More importantly is ensuring you have written documentation of your availability ever day!
If a prospective resident says he/she has allergies & wants the carpet removed & the floor tiled – we can have them pay for this modification, correct? Do we have to make this modification?
Yes, you could require the prospective resident pay to have this done. Do you have to make the modification would depend on if it was a reasonable accommodation for your community.
If a person applies for an apartment and the property does not have a handicapped accessible unit, who converts the unit and does the person have to put funds in escrow to replace the unit back to original condition?
A person should be allowed to make a “reasonable modification,” and when doing so management may request that the work be done in a professional manner and that required permits be obtained. The management company may also require funds be put into escrow to put the apartment back to original condition if the modifications will interfere with the next person living in that unit. The Department of Justice and HUD published extensive guidance regarding reasonable modification issues in a document entitled Reasonable Modifications Under the Fair Housing Act which can be found on HUD.gov.
Would we have to provide handicapped parking for an older resident who requests it? When is handicapped parking required?
A state disabled parking permit is sufficient proof of need for a reserved accessible parking space. Or, if they provide documentation from a health care provider.
Why is it acceptable to say “no college students” (on mvfairhousing.com list)? Isn’t this age discrimination?
It depends on your state and local laws. If students are an additional protected class in an area then this would not be acceptable. Keep in mind that the word list is a guideline not the law.
In honor of Fair Housing Compliance Month we wanted to share with you the different ways that AppFolio helps property managers with Fair Housing compliance.
Fair Housing Compliant Questions with Online Applications
Our application asks for specific information from prospective tenants and it only asks questions that are compliant with Fair Housing. For example, the online application never asks about race or gender or any other discriminatory question. We include the standard questions that are compliant with fair housing such as, “Have you been convicted of a felony?” It’s okay to base decisions on this kind of data. We’ve also designed the online rental application to be simple and only contain the minimum amount of data for the applicant and not extraneous questions that could open you up for discrimination issues.
Make a List of the Qualifying Criteria for Your Potential Residents
I recommend for all of our customers to make a list ahead of time, before accepting applications, of criteria for qualifying a resident. Then make sure you stick to that list! This will help tremendously if you ever get sued for discrimination. You can always go back to your list and point out the criteria for a qualified applicant – common examples include setting a credit score minimum, or requiring that the applicant was not convicted of a felony in the last 5 years.
Most property managers actually have different criteria. For example in the past, foreclosures may have been on a property manager’s exclusion list. But in this economic climate, more people may have had a foreclosure and they still make great renters. In addition, that criteria is something you can put into our online application so it is right there on the application. So if the applicant applies, he/she signs that online application and confirms they read and understand the application requirements.
A lot of property managers don’t realize how important it is to have that written criteria and avoid making one-time exceptions. Don’t forget that you can make your criteria specific – you can say that a felony of violent crimes may not be okay but a felony of non-violent crimes is allowed, for example. It is up to you but you absolutely should be consistent.
Time of Application is Important!
When using AppFolio’s online applications, the applications are all stored in AppFolio and sorted by date and time. An important Fair Housing requirement is if you have 2 applicants and both parties are equally qualified, then you have to give the rental to the first person that applied. If both people pass your qualifications (such as a resident must apply with a minimum credit score of 600) and both applicants meet this requirement, then in AppFolio you can look at the date/time the application was submitted and make sure you go with the person who completed the application first.
Resident Screening is Built-In
Another way you can stay compliant with Fair Housing is with the resident screening feature (optional) that is built into AppFolio. Screening prospective applicants helps property managers make qualified decisions by providing data on criminal backgrounds and credit scores. You can make move-in decisions based on looking at the full screening report to make sure that you comply with your qualifying criteria.
The bottom line in Fair Housing is to make sure you treat all applicants equally!
As many of you know, late last year the Small Business Job Act was passed by Congress. What some of you may not know is that with it came a new “supercharged” version of Section 179.
Section 179 is the part of the tax code that governs what small businesses can treat as an expense and deduct in the year they purchase instead of depreciating over a period of years. Certain items like computers, desks, cars, and even software (like AppFolio!) can fall under this provision.
But what makes section 179 “supercharged”? Well, for tax years 2010 and 2011, they raised the limit of qualifying deductions from $25,000 to $500,000. So if you were hitting this limit before, now you have more room to deduct those expenses!
We had a great webinar with Daniel Bornstein last Thursday. He shared his perspective on the top 10 property management pitfalls that cost business money and can potentially get them into legal trouble. Daniel is an experienced real estate lawyer and runs his own property management business – we are very fortunate to have his expertise on the webinar!
A video recording of the complete webinar can be viewed below.
There were so many questions we didn’t get to all of them on the call so Daniel was kind enough to answer your questions below.
Q. If the owner fails to give the deposit back to the tenant after move-out due to a repair dispute, they are liable?
A. That is correct
Q. If you provided education regularly, does an employee on-site have a personal liability if they are the procurement error of a liability suit?
A. Education is your best insulation from liability even if there was an employee error.
Q. Do you consider the California Association of Realtor (CAR) forms comprehensive enough?
A. The C.A.R. agreement could be supplemented and there are more comprehensive agreements available.
Q. What amounts of liability insurance do you recommend for the tenant?
A. Tenants should have liability insurance. The 3 factors that should be considered are:
1. Size of the apartment building
2. Amount of rent being paid
3. Quality of the building
Q. When you state that the property manager should be named as beneficiary on insurance, do you mean the property manager personally or the property management company?
A. The property management company.
Q. In our agreement, we have the option of canceling if the property does not meet our “minimum home requirements.” Is that sufficient?
A. As the property manager, you can terminate them if they do not meet the minimum standards that you set for that habitat. For example, if the building is hit by the City or County with violations then you have the right to terminate.
Q. Can an unlicensed person set an appointment and open up a rental unit for a potential tenant to view it? This would be for a house or condo we manage, not an apartment community. He/she would only open the property for them and provide an informational flier to them, prepared by the broker. This is in California.
A. That is OK if the person is simply handling administrative matters. Opening the door to a unit is potentially more problematic, but probably ok.
Q. I know you mentioned never hiring an unlicensed handyman to do work on a heater or some major system, because of the liability involved. What are your thoughts about hiring an unlicensed handyman to do minor repairs (i.e. paint, sink repair, yard work, etc.) that are under $500? I understand there is no “handyman” license in California. I find many companies do this for minor items. Is this foolish in your opinion?
A. It is acceptable, though “drift” occurs often and the handyman starts doing work that requires a permit (and potential licensing).
