MHCO

Historically, it has been common knowledge that once signed by the landlord and tenant, a rental/lease agreement may not be amended unless all parties agree. However, over the years, as landlord-tenant legislation began to detail more and more rights and liabilities, the issue arose as to how changes in the law were to be applied, when they did not appear in the rental/lease agreement.

Let's start with the Baby Boomers vs. the Elderly. Senior citizens are now at the top of the heap in U.S. Census numbers. The Baby Boomers are now officially "seniors" as they started turning 65 in 2011. In fact, 10,000 people turn 65 every day! The 85 to 94 year-olds experienced the fastest growth between 2000 and 2010.

The case involved a mobile home park landlord who filed an eviction case because the tenant was allowing her adult son and his girlfriend to stay in the tenant's home without park approval. The park is a "55 or older" facility, and neither the son or girlfriend met the park's age requirements.

Answer: Domestic violence is a defense to eviction, but only under the proper circumstances. I have set out the law in its entirety below. As you can see, the law presumes there has been a violent act for which the landlord is evicting everyonein the space, i.e. the villain and the victim.

A 55 plus Community has been in existence for fifteen (15) years. During that time two sets of on-site managers have managed the property. Each management team has allowed a few families to move in believing the community was well within the 20% margin allowed by Federal Fair Housing regulations.

State and local fair housing laws mirror federal laws, but add additional protected classes. In Oregon, for instance, "marital status" and "source of income" are protected classes in addition to the seven federal classes. To these state and federal classes, cities may add additional protections. Eugene and Corvallis, for example are cities that add "age" to the list.

Beginning, then developing the process

According to HUD, criminal background checks have a disproportionate impact on minority home seekers, largely due to disproportionate conviction and incarceration rates for minorities and others in protected classes.

Wage and Hour Basics

An initial question a community owner might have is, "How about my pre-existing community, does it need to comply with ADA issues?" Answer: "It depends." If your community pre-dates the ADA statute, and the community has not gone through any significant renovations (determined on a case-by-case basis), then the community may be "grandfathered in" in most cases.