Occupancy limits in Park City property management can be somewhat of a tricky situation. There are some ways that a landlord can limit the number of people allowed to reside in a property, but only to a point. And there are some situations where a landlord can't limit the number of people. Occupancy is a very property-subjective restriction and there are many opportunities for a landlord to find themselves in hot water with a local housing authority. The biggest problem a landlord can face when it comes to occupancy limits is being accused of some type of discrimination, particularly familial status.
If you are unfamiliar with Fair Housing laws, protected classes or familial status you should check out my post titled "Questions You Can't Ask In Park City Property Management". This will give you some good information on the different protected classes and explain a little about each one. Now let's take a look at occupancy limits and how it could apply to long term rentals in Park City.
Occupancy Limits By Law
The first thing you should understand about occupancy limits is that Utah law does not have a limit to the maximum number of occupants for any given property. Federal law does set a "reasonable" standard for occupancy to be two persons per bedroom. This should be understood that a landlord cannot have a policy that is more restrictive than two people per bedroom. This does not mean that a landlord can put as many people into a property as they would like, there are certain other measures of habitability that must be met and an over-crowded property would likely violate some of those rules. For example at properties I manage I have established a policy of two people per bedroom plus one. So a one bedroom would allow occupancy of three people, a two bedroom would allow five, and so on. I have found this to be an effective and reasonable rule for Park City property management.
Additional Factors
While you cannot be more restrictive than two people per bedroom that doesn't mean you will not have complaints filed against you for turning down applicants who exceed the two people restriction. Fair Housing law provides a simple example of two families of three people each who were turned down for housing. The first family consisted of two adults and an infant applying to live in a large one bedroom. The second family consisted of two adults and a teenage child applying to live in a small one bedroom. The law states that a charge against the landlord in the first example might be warranted while a charge against the landlord in the second example might not.
Discrimination
The thing you want to avoid at all costs is discrimination based on familial status. You cannot reject any potential tenant based solely on the fact of children, even when it comes to occupancy limits. While you should never say to a person "You have too many children to live in this property", it would be acceptable to say "There are too people to live in this property", as long as this statement is not more restrictive than two people per bedroom and would not be considered "unreasonable".
If you would like more information or tips on occupancy limits, or further information about Park City property management in general click the link below for a free consultation. You will receive valuable information specific to your property that will help you make an informed decision. You will also receive a free, no-obligation quote on our property management services. At CC Realty we specialize in making investment property ownership a trouble free experience. Please contact us today for your free consultation.
As a landlord in Park City property management you want to know a good deal of information about a prospective tenant before you allow them to move in to your long term rentals in Park City. Things like rental history, credit score, occupation, etc. are great indicators of how a prospective tenant will perform in your rental property. It is natural for a landlord to ask a lot of questions when determining the suitability of a person. Over the course of touring a property I usually ask prospective tenants how long they have been in the area, what they do for work, and what they are looking for in a rental property. Some of these questions are duplicates of what I ask for on an application but it is good to get some back story on each situation. If you would like some more information on handling prospective tenants check out "Tenant Screening Tips For Park City Property Management". It will give you some tips on how to set up a process for your property management business.
But there are certain questions you should never ask a prospective tenant. These may seem like reasonable questions but can in interpreted as a form of discrimination that will run you afoul of Fair Housing laws. Let's take a look at a few examples.
- Race: Do you speak Spanish? What Asian restaurants do you like around here?
- Religion: Have you been to the new Jewish temple in town? What holidays do you like to celebrate?
- Color: We have a lot of Hispanic families here, are you okay with that? You have beautiful features, where are you from?
- Disability: Why do you need a handicap parking spot? What does your service animal help you with? Are you sure you want to live on the third floor with your disability?
- Familial Status: We only rent first floor properties to families with children, are you okay with that? Have you had complaints on your children's behavior at previous properties?
- Sex: We don't have many single female tenants, are you sure you want to rent here? I can't remember the last time a male tenant asked me that, are you sure you can't figure out the thermostat?
- National Origin: What country is your family from? Your English is amazing; did you study it growing up?
These are example questions for all the protected classes that are covered in Fair Housing law. Some of these protected classes may be new to you so I would recommend a little test you can use to determine if a question is discriminatory. For example if you were asking someone if they would like a "kid-friendly" property try replacing "kid" with "black" or "Muslim" and then assess the question. If you for example substitute a race or religion into the question and it seems discriminatory then chances are your original question is also discriminatory to another protected class. The last thing you want in Park City property management is to get in trouble with any type of discrimination in your property management business.
If you would like more information or tips on questions you can't ask, or further information about Park City property management in general click the link below for a free consultation. You will receive valuable information specific to your property that will help you make an informed decision. You will also receive a free, no-obligation quote on our property management services. At CC Realty we specialize in making investment property ownership a trouble free experience. Please contact us today for your free consultation.
A recent article I read has brought to light the need for anyone involved in Park City property management to be aware of discrimination testing and know some of common pitfalls that landlords and property manager can fall into when it comes to Park City long term rentals. Discrimination testing is performed by the Disability Law Center (DLC) which is a "private, non-profit organization designated by the governor as Utah’s Protection and Advocacy (P&A) agency" and is set up to "enforce and strengthen laws that protect the opportunities, choices and legal rights of Utahns with disabilities."
The DLC conducts discrimination testing using two testers, a control tester who is not in a protected class and a second tester who is in a protected class. I have previously written about Fair Housing laws in my post "Fair Housing And Park City Property Management: Are You At Risk?" but briefly protected classes are race, religion, sex, color, national origin, age, citizenship, pregnancy, familial status, disability, and veteran. The two testers contact a property manager or landlord and inquire about housing. Problems occur when there is a difference in treatment between the control tester and the protected tester. Let's take a look at some of the common mistakes made in it comes to protected classes in Salt Lake City property management.
Service Animals
Asking for a pet deposit or pet rent for a service animal is illegal. A companion animal also falls into this category. If you have a person applying to live in your rental property and they have a service or companion animal you cannot charge pet rent or a pet deposit for this animal. The tenant is still responsible if the animal does any damage to the property but a deposit cannot be taken in advance. Once an animal is identified as a service or companion animal you can ask for proper documentation on the animal but the questions should stop there.
Disability Questions
You should never ask, in any way, what the nature of a person's disability is. The person is not obligated to tell you what their disability is and you are not allowed to ask. Even in casual conversation you can't ask this question in Park City property management.
Availability
Never ever ever tell a person that you do not have any availability when in fact you do. You should already have in place a procedure for reviewing whether a tenant is qualified to rent a property through your application process. If you don't already have something in place to property screen tenants you should take a look at my blog post "5 Ways Tenant Screening Helps - Park City Property Management." Just looking at a person and telling them you don't have anything available is a definite red flag.
Incentives
If you are currently offering some type of move in incentive to get your property rented you had better make sure you offer the incentive to everyone who inquires. Discounts and the like can be very discriminatory when they are only offered to a select group of people.
If you would like more information on how to not discriminate when handling tenants, or further information about Park City property management in general click the link below for a free consultation. You will receive valuable information specific to your property that will help you make an informed decision. You will also receive a free, no-obligation quote on our property management services. At CC Realty we specialize in making investment property ownership a trouble free experience. Please contact us today for your free consultation.
photo credit #1
For today's blog post I would like to share a recent situation involving a tenant and the pet rules at a local condominium property. I think this story will help highlight the issue of pet rentals in Park City property management, as well as explain some concepts that might be unfamiliar to some people. I will also share a few statistics on the future of pet rentals that will help landlords decide how to approach the issue of renting to tenants with pets. It's no secret that Park City is a very pet friendly town but not when it comes to renters looking to find a place that will accommodate their dog or cat.
When The Rules Do And Don't Apply
I currently have a tenant that rents at a condominium property that allows a tenant to have pets. Unfortunately for this tenant the owner of the property decided to sell and the tenant had to move. Based on my availability at the time I did not have another two bedroom at the pet friendly property that would fit her and her two daughters. I did however have a two bedroom at another property that was not pet friendly. The important point in this story is that the current tenant had a dog that was registered as an Emotional Support Animal or ESA. 
I have previously covered the differences with ESAs in a post "Service Animals - Info For Park City Property Management" but to briefly explain an ESA is not the same as a service dog and therefore has some restrictions. Where a service dog has "unlimited public access", an ESA does not. However a property manager or landlord must make reasonable accommodations or changes to the rules allowing a person to keep an ESA, even if the landlord's or community's rules expressly prohibit pets. This accommodation is required by Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act. I submitted the registration for the animal to the manager of the no-pets community and they were initially resistant to making an accommodation. I explained the requirements and the community manager placed a call to HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development). After speaking with HUD he made the recommendation that the animal be allowed and the tenant was okay to move in. This is an important distinction that needs to be made for Park City property management. If the pet is a registered ESA a landlord must make reasonable accommodations or changes to a no pets policy. Property managers and landlords who do not make these requests can get into serious trouble, including possible discrimination suits from the federal government.
The Future Of Pets And Rentals
While there still continues to be clarifications to the laws regarding service animals and ESAs it is pretty clear that landlords and property managers in Park City property management need to be aware of the legal issues regarding these animals. It is also interesting to note that the number of renters with pets continues to rise. In a recent survey 75% of renters in 2013 stated they had some type of pet, compared with 43% in 2012. Cats and dogs, no surprise, counted for the majority of pets while fish came in a distant third. 51% of those surveyed said that their neighbors love pets while 58% of non-pet owners stated they enjoy living in pet friendly properties.
If you would like more information about pet rentals and ESA requirements, or further information about Park City property management in general click the link below for a free consultation. You will receive valuable information specific to your property that will help you make an informed decision. You will also receive a free, no-obligation quote on our property management services. At CC Realty we specialize in making investment property ownership a trouble free experience. Please contact us today for your free consultation.
photo credit #1
In a previous blog post entitled Pet Friendly Rentals - Park City Property Management, I touched briefly on the idea of service animals. If you would like to read that blog post you may click here. For today's post I would like to dive a little further into the concept of service animals and how it applies to property management Utah.
Service Animals
Recent changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2011 have more narrowly defined, under law, what is considered a service animal. To be clear the changes only apply to the ADA and not to the Fair Housing Act. And as always, when dealing with complex legal matters, it is best to consult an attorney familiar with Utah property management law. The revisions to the ADA laws now classify only dogs as service animals. We are all familiar with the idea of a guide dog helping
blind people or providing some other type of assistance to someone with a visibly disability. However service animals are not limited to just physical disabilities. ADA laws provide for service animals to be used for people who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or other mental disabilities. Landlords must be careful when approaching the issue of a service animal as there are things you may and may not ask of a person who identifies as having a service animal. When a person's disability is not immediately obvious a landlord may ask to see the dog's service animal registration or some type of document proving the need for a service animal. A landlord may also ask the nature of the service the dog provides but must never ask about the nature of a person's disability. For more information on the ADA change and a little bit about miniature horses you can click here.
Assistance Animals
Another category of animals helping people are what is known as assistance animals. Assistance animals, sometimes also referred to as emotional support animals, are different from service animals in a few key ways. Assistance animals do not have to undergo any type of formal training on the completion of specific tasks. They are also not limited to dogs only. As the alternate name suggests assistance animals are designed to provide some type of emotional support to a person with a disability. Emotional support does not necessarily mean that the disability is limited to mental or emotional, it is not. Assistance animal is a somewhat evolving term that has a broader reach than specific service animals. An individual suffering from anxiety disorders or PTSD may have their symptoms mitigated by the calming and loving 
presence of an animal. Another difference between the two types of animals is access. While a service animal is allowed by ADA laws to go anywhere the public may go, for example a sporting event. The more broadly defined assistance animal however is not protected by ADA law and could be turned away in our sporting event example. Where assistance animals do enjoy protection under the law is in the Fair Housing Amendments Act. The act allows a person with a disability to ask for reasonable accommodations in their housing. Allowing an assistance animal in a community with a "no pets" policy is an example of a reasonable accommodation. There have even been instances in Park City property management where an HOA was sued by a disabled person for not making reasonable accommodations. Click here if you would like to read about this case.
Recommendations
The key thing to remember in the case of service or assistance animals is you should not discriminate. If a potential tenant wants to rent your property and they qualify in every way, you cannot turn them down because they have a service animal. You also cannot accept them but charge pet rent or pet deposits. The tenant is still responsible for any damage the animal may cause but you cannot charge a pet deposit up front. A good rule of thumb is to not consider the animal a pet but rather a prescribed treatment for a disability. You can read more about FHA here and reasonable accommodations under FHA here.
If you are interested in learning more about property management Park City Utah, download our free white page "5 Questions Every Landlord Should Ask Themselves".
In a previous blog, 3 Tips For Successful Residential Property Management, I briefly touched on the Fair Housing Act and some possible consequences to getting sideways with Uncle Sam. In this blog I would like to go over the act in a little better detail as I feel this is something that many people have heard of but know little about. In particular how this act relates to rental property management is something every landlord should be aware of.
The Fair Housing Act
Passed in 1968 the act prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of property to any individual based on race, religion and national origin. An update to the law in 1974 included gender to this list. Most people would view the discrimination against these four classes as an obvious no-no but an update to the law in 1988 created two new classes you might not know about.
Handicap
We are all familiar with the ubiquitous handicap parking signs but handicap or disability is also a protected class when it comes to rental properties. For example if you set a no pets policy at your rental property, or if your property is part of a condominium association that does not allow pets, you cannot refuse to rent to a blind person who uses a Seeing Eye dog. Also a landlord cannot prohibit a disabled tenant from making, at their own expense, reasonable modifications to the property that will allow them to use it. However if a modification is made the disabled tenant is obligated to restore the property to original condition upon their moving. And finally if there are any rules or policies that inhibit a disabled person from using the housing then reasonable accommodations must be made for the tenant.
Familial Status
Familial status, a somewhat confusing term, can easily be understood as having kids. Discrimination against this type of protected class can be somewhat difficult to understand but I have found a simple way to determine if a rule or policy is discriminatory. A posted rule stating "No kids in the pool from 10-2" may see innocuous enough but if "kids" were to be replaced with "Asians" or "Catholics" then it becomes clear that the rule is discriminatory. I recently had a resident stop by my office concerned about the prospect of having a new neighbor move in above them. They were concerned about the noise and asked that I would only rent to a single person, preferably a woman with no kids who worked as a flight attendant! Not only was the request a little extreme but it would also be a discriminatory practice. As a professional property manager I cannot even engage in what is called "steering", the act of suggesting only certain properties to a family or other protected class.
What Does This Mean For Me?
Great question, glad you asked! There are rules regarding what housing is covered by the Act and what is not. Generally most housing is covered but under certain circumstances a single-family home rented without the use of a broker is not covered, as long as the owner of the property does not also own more than four rental properties at a time. For reference you can take a look at an overview of the Fair Housing Act or, if you are really suffering from insomnia, you can take a look at the entire text of the Act here. Now if I could make a recommendation to anyone it would be to follow the requirements of the Act whether you think you should or not. While it is always best to error on the side of caution you can be certain that your actions in managing a rental property are ethical and honest.