How Roseville Property Management Avoids Legal Pitfalls
There are many variables in property management that can lead to doing things legally or illegally. The local, state and federal laws and codes help property managers know and understand where to draw the line.
The Fair Housing Act protects certain classes of people against discrimination in renting, buying or applying for a mortgage. These protected classes include race or color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, age, and those with disabilities or handicap. Roseville property managers must treat all of these protected classes equally. They cannot choose to deny a rental application based upon these factors.
The Americans with Disabilities Act is a civil rights law that protects people with physical and emotional disabilities in the workplace, in housing markets, transportation, and anywhere in public against discrimination. The purpose of this law is to ensure that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as those without a disability. Roseville property management companies must tread lightly here. If there is an applicant for your rental property who is protected under this class, we recommend you study up on this law or hire RPM Select to make sure all is done in compliance with the law and that this applicant receives a Reasonable Accommodation request.
In addition to staying updated on revisions to the above mentioned laws, property managers must also be educated and in compliance with:
- Habitability laws which ensure a tenant has a safe and comfortable living space
- Hire licensed and insured contractors to complete maintenance and repair work on the property
- Follow smoke and carbon monoxide detector laws
- Handle evictions properly
- Handle the rent collections process correctly and ethically
- Keep all personal information confidential
- Availability to take and respond to maintenance emergency calls
As you can clearly see, Roseville property management is not for the fainthearted. Knowing these laws and complying with them takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. However, it is worth the time and effort or the cost to hire a management team to avoid the following scenario.
A Real Life Experience from a Private Landlord Prior to Hiring Select.
I thought I was a perfect candidate to do my own property management. I had nothing to lose. In reality, I had everything to lose. Three years ago, I got myself into some serious Roseville property management legal trouble. How many of my violations can you catch in the following story?
I started the day with a cup of coffee, sitting in my home office. I had just noticed an urgent email an important client sent at 5 a.m. when the phone rang.
“The water from the back outdoor faucet is leaking,” my tenant said. I apologized for the inconvenience, then told her I would stop by to take a look at it shortly. I then returned to my email, and the rest of my day is history. I got sucked into my projects and completely forgot about the call. Days go by. Weeks go by. Three weeks later, my phone rang at 10:30 p.m. just as I was getting ready for bed. I decided to let the phone ring this time. I was too tired to deal with anything.
The next morning I listened to my voicemails. “The basement is flooding!” my panicked tenant said. “We just discovered it in our storage room. Everything is soaked!” I remembered the faucet from three weeks earlier and slapped my head. It was too late.
On the way over, I thought how I never planned on water issues when I started doing my own Roseville property management. To save money, I hired a friend who said he could do restoration, but the damage was double what it would have been three weeks earlier due to the increased damage, so I still lost any hope of any profit that month, or the next. He asked for the information of the tenant so he could follow up with her later on the leak and I provided both her email and cell phone number.
How Many Mistakes Did This Landlord Make?
- Failure to document that he received maintenance request.
- Failure to take action quickly and assess the situation.
- Failure to hire a licensed professional with liability insurance.
- Failure to document what course of action was taken to solve the problem.
- Failure to provide a safe living environment for his tenants.
- Failure to protect a tenant’s privacy and secure personal information.
Don’t let this be you. All of these mistakes were avoidable. Keep your profit and your sanity. Call the top Roseville property management team, Select today to make certain you stay in compliance with all the laws.
