In this lesson, we focus on avoiding discrimination claims based on religion during the holidays—and all throughout the year.

You don’t have to be a “Grinch” to comply with fair housing law. The key is to celebrate the general festivity of the season without promoting a particular religion or particular religious holiday. That way, you’ll satisfy fair housing concerns by showing that your community welcomes everyone—regardless of anyone’s religious practices or beliefs.

Question:  We want to raise rent for our RV tenants because we have not raised the rent in over two years.  We know there are new rules, but what are they?

Question:  We have a resident in the park who recently got into a verbal shouting match with another neighbor.  The resident was extremely intoxicated at the time and made threats and gestures that were very inappropriate and provocative.  There are some residents who want us to immediately issue a 24-hour notice.  However, until this incident, the resident has been a good tenant and never caused a problem.  How should we handle this?  This incident seems entirely out of character for this individual.
 

Question: A member is near the end of an abandonment notice.  The former resident and owner of the home without notice to the landlord sells the "abandoned" home to another person.   Does the landlord have to send a new abandonment notice to the new owner and restart the 60 day clock?  

Question.  As new managers, we are concerned about being able to spot problem issues before they get out of control.  What are some of the major management mistakes we should watch out for? 

Question: In March of this year a home in our community was destroyed by fire.  During the application process with the city and Marion County, it came to our attention that the Fire Marshall had contacted the city public works department, telling them that they needed to be contacted if our community made any placement applications to move a new home into the community.  The city would not accept our application.

Upon contacting the assistant Fire Marshall, she advised that any new homes within the community would have to be located within 600 feet of a fire hydrant.  She advised that this has been the requirement for approximately the last 15 years.  She explained that although there have been homes allowed to be placed in the park exceeding this distance within that time frame, the fact that they were more than 600 feet from the hydrant was apparently not an issue.

She further explained that the fire engines carry 600 feet of fire hose, and that during the March fire the responding fire fighters ran out of hose prior to reaching the fire.  A second fire engine was needed lay additional hose to the scene.  She said that until a solution was made to be able to supply a suitable water supply for firefighting, no homes could be placed in the park that are located more than 600 feet from the hydrant.

As an older park where the homes are quite vintage, this will obviously cause a major blow to our business in the future.  Are we in anyway protected or somehow "grandfathered" due to the age of our park? I can't imagine that we are the only park that may face similar situations.

HUD recently announced that it’s charging a couple who owns an apartment building in Georgia with violating fair housing law by refusing to rent to, imposing different rental terms and conditions on, and making discriminatory statements about families with children.

Question:  I gave a 5% rent increase in June 2019.  Can I do another rent increase again in September 2019?  If I can, how much more can I give?  If I did not give any rent increases in 2019 can I still do those increases in 2020 plus what I what is allowed in 2020?  Are rent increases based on calendar year? 

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 occupancy limits?  And if our community percentage is 85%, are we required to rent the 15% remainder to families with children?