NEW YEAR RESOLUTION
I will train my staff on fair housing laws and sexual harassment to create a culture of zero tolerance.
If you have followed us for any amount of time, we are preaching to the choir when we say that housing providers need to be cognizant of fair housing laws. But even the statement of preaching to the choir could get us sued for a religious connotation.
We want you to know that many opportunistic attorneys feed their families by suing landlords for summarily denying Section 8 tenancies, refusing to rent to tenants with service or comfort animals, or expressing other preferences that exclude rental applicants in violation of the law. These attorneys, as well as government-funded groups, will utilize "testers" whose sole purpose is to catch landlords in the act of making a discriminatory statement.
Generally speaking, all rental applicants should be welcome to apply. It doesn’t mean that the rental applicant must be accepted, merely that the landlord or their agent will evaluate all applications on the merits.
Less communication is more and when a prospective renter is denied a tenancy, the answer should be that the application was carefully reviewed and that a more suitable candidate was found. We want to avoid emphatic statements that expose landlords to liability such as, "Young kids have destroyed our properties, so you are not a fit," "This apartment is for professionals with a steady paycheck, not a government voucher," "We have a strict no pets policy," and so forth.
All staff should understand fair housing laws, especially the person answering the phone. This first point of contact is the most prone to make discriminatory statements when a prospective tenant calls in response to an ad.
Let’s talk about the difficult topic of sexual harassment.
We know that this goes on and women have largely, until now, declined to report it. The #MeToo movement has empowered women to come forward. If there are any Shark Tank fans out there, let’s see what Mr. Wonderful, no stranger to real estate, had to say when the drip of sexual harassment allegations turned into a downpour.
We understand that some landlords or their agents make inappropriate entreaties to tenants or prospective tenants. At times, there are egregious cases when tenants get a bargain deal on rent, but not included in the lease are lewd text messages and sexual advances. Yet most cases of sexual harassment are more subtle.
Bottom line: Since the landlord or property manager is in a position of authority, do not hit on the tenant or rental applicant.
There has been legislation to mandate sexual harassment training for real estate professionals. While we normally object to increased regulations, we support efforts to educate everyone involved in the rental business to bring this topic to heightened awareness and understand that making others feel uneasy is not tolerable.
This culture of zero tolerance must be instilled from the top.