Question: What are a landlord's rights against a lienholder who, following a tenant abandonment, signs the storage agreement, but fails to maintain the space? What notice should the landlord give? Do we have to start the abandonment notification all over again?
Question: Can landlords ask just for social security numbers and deny applicants if they do not have one? Or does that start to go down the slippery slope of disparate impact? If the landlord does not require social security numbers, does that open them up liability to the rest of the community?
Question: When can a manager refuse payment by check? If the name on the check does not match the resident's name can (or should) the check be refused? Should there be a park rule to back this up? If the manager refuses payment because of the name on the check and asks for money order or cash does that have to be in the rules? All of this stems from the concern of unauthorized residents becoming tenants simply because a manager accepts a check for space rent when they are not an approved tenant.
Question: A pedophile is released from prison and moves in with his mother in a manufactured home community. He is not an authorized occupant or tenant. Residents are upset. What are the landlord's options? Is it limited to just serving a 30 day notice for unauthorized resident?
Question: A resident passed away in our community. There was a person living in the home at the time under a Temporary Occupant Agreement. However, it does not expire for several more months. Rent is paid up until the end of the month. What should the landlord do? Can he/she give a notice longer than the 24 hour notice of eviction which seems cruel given the circumstances? Should he/she use a 30 day notice? Should management accept rent from the temporary occupant for the following month?
Background. The Fair Housing Act (“FHA” or “Act”) was passed in 1968, and has been an important fixture in the law ever since. Essentially, its purpose was to prohibit discrimination in the sale and rental of residential housing. At the time, there were five main protected classes, i.e. groups of persons entitled to the protection of the Act. Those classifications were race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. In 1988, the FHA was amended to include two additional protected classifications: disability and familial status.[1]
The language of the Act makes it illegal “(t)o refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer, or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin.”[2] [Underscore mine.] In other words, certain conduct is prohibited if it is “because of” another’s race, color, etc.
Notwithstanding the text of the Act suggesting that Fair Housing claims may only be based upon intentional forms of discrimination, for many years several lower federal courts have ruled otherwise; i.e. holding that certain actions, though “facially neutral” (i.e. with no proof of improper motive), may constitute a violation of the Act if they adversely impact a protected class. This is the premise underlying the principle of “disparate impact”; the consequence rather than the motivation can be found to violate fair housing law. For a more detailed background on disparate impact, see my post here.
When reduced to its lowest common denominator, the ultimate question raised by disparate impact theory is whether the FHA forbids actions that may have a statistically adverse impact upon members of a protected class, even though those actions were not motivated by any intent to discriminate.[3]
Question. We have just begun managing a 55+ community. However, we are confused about the 80/20 rules and the possibility of losing our 55+ status. What is a safe margin for the occupancy limits? And if our community percentage is 85%, are we required to rent the 15% remainder to families with children?
Question: We have a resident who was recently arrested for meth possession in the park and for a variety of other offenses (identity theft, etc.). We want evict the tenant for the meth possession. The 30-day notice of termination under ORS 90.630 is curable, and MHCO's Form #43 for a violation asks us to describe the remedy. But we want the resident out for good. Is there a remedy in this case that will work?
Tenant Video Cameras
Question: In my community, there are two neighbors living next door to each other that don't get along. One of the tenants has accused the other of having late night outside visitors and possible distribution of drugs, and vandalism to his property. He has recently installed a security system to his home that includes cameras. One of those cameras is focused on his storage shed and also includes a view of the neighbor's front porch and front door. My manager knows of the security set up and wanted to know if this situation can lead to an invasion of privacy claim by one tenant against the other tenant. Now that the manager knows this, is there some action we should take?
Question: A resident living alone passed away. It took some time for the estate to get underway because they had to search for heirs. An heir was located and was appointed as Administrator to act on behalf of the estate.
Shortly after the resident's passing, we began requesting that a Storage Agreement be signed but the estate was hesitant to do so until the Administrator was appointed. After the appointment the Administrator was initially cooperative, but unexpectedly changed his mind and is now threatening to bring all of the past due rent current, and then, out of spite, tear the home down while still on the space. Presumably, after doing so, we would expect the Administrator to cease all further space rental payments. How should we handle this?