It’s surprisingly easy to make a fair housing mistake, especially if you’re managing your own Nashville rental property without the experienced help of a professional property manager. Most landlords don’t set out to intentionally discriminate against tenants or applicants, but you can violate a part of the Fair Housing Act without even realizing it.
With constant changes and updates to the fair housing laws, how you market your property and screen your tenants is under a microscope, and errors are costly. Lately, more attention has been paid to how criminal records are used during screening. Emotional support animals and other companion animals, while different from service animals, are getting a lot of fair housing attention lately.
As the leasing property management resource in Nashville, we’ve stayed up to date on all the changes in fair housing laws, and we’re incredibly attentive to how those laws are interpreted and administered in Tennessee. We have processes in place to protect both owners and tenants. Our fair housing safeguards ensure that marketing and screening systems are fair, consistent, and legally compliant.
Let’s discuss how to understand Tennessee’s fair housing laws and how landlords can benefit from the professional expertise provided by property managers like us.
Federal Fair Housing Act
All state fair housing laws begin with the federal Fair Housing Act. This landmark legislation from the 1960s prevents real estate agents, landlords, property managers, mortgage lenders, leasing agents, and anyone else involved in the housing industry from discriminating against tenants, buyers, or applicants based on the following protected classes:
- Color
- Race
- Disability
- Familial status
- National origin
- Religion
- Sex
When it comes to the practical application of fair housing laws, landlords are expected to have consistent policies in place that document how you handle marketing, showings, screenings, and leasing. Make sure you can demonstrate you’re objective. If there’s even a perception that you’ve discriminated against a tenant or a potential tenant based on one of those protected classes, you can find yourself in the middle of a lengthy and costly investigation. If you’re found to have violated a fair housing law, penalties start at thousands of dollars.
Tennessee State Fair Housing Laws
Tennessee has its own state fair housing laws, which reflect the federal laws.
The Tennessee Housing Development Agency has processes in place to affirmatively further fair housing in Tennessee and ensure that all of its programs are free of discrimination. It also enforces the Tennessee Human Rights Act and Tennessee Disability Act, which prohibit discrimination related to housing, public accommodations, and employment. The Tennessee Human Rights Commission is an independent state agency responsible for enforcing the state’s anti-discrimination laws.
Our state does not provide new protected classes, as some states do. Local fair housing laws follow state fair housing laws, which follow federal law.
What do these state and federal fair housing laws mean to you as a Nashville landlord committed to staying compliant? It means you cannot ask specific questions during the showing or screening process:
- You cannot ask a potential tenant where they came from if they have an accent.
- You cannot ask if an applicant goes to any of the local churches.
- Landlords may not ask potential renters how many kids they have.
- Do not advertise that you’re only renting to women or men.
- Property owners are not permitted to ask a tenant with a Seeing-Eye-Dog why the animal is necessary.
These are just examples based on where some of the most common mistakes are made. Some of your inquiries may seem innocent to you. It may seem strange that you cannot say your property is “perfect for single professionals” when you’re advertising a studio condo in an office-friendly neighborhood. However, that type of language is discriminatory, and it could lead to a complaint.
We’re going to examine the areas where most fair housing mistakes are made: advertising and screening.
Marketing and Advertising Nashville Rental Properties
Marketing and advertising are the best ways to attract tenants to your property. It’s important to be strategic when listing and advertising a rental home to minimize vacancy times and rent to the best possible tenant.
You may be wondering why you’d discriminate when advertising a property. It’s just bad business to turn away any prospective tenants, right?
Right. However, as we said earlier, sometimes the perception of discrimination can be a problem.
All your listings, marketing materials, and signs must comply with fair housing laws. When you’re showing a property, keep the conversation away from any topics that may come towards protected class territory. Focus on marketing your property to everyone.
What should your listing say or not say? It’s fine to include details in your advertising that discuss the home’s size, the rent per month, when the home will be ready for occupancy, and the property’s benefits. These are things that matter to all potential residents, and no single group is identified, included, or excluded. That’s the goal.
What’s not okay is saying the home would be “great for single professionals.” You should not say it’s close to churches. This type of language can be seen as discriminatory against several of the law’s protected classes.
Your advertising must remain focused on the property and its offerings. Don’t make assumptions about who would want to live there or discuss the types of tenants you would prefer.
Let’s say you do not allow pets in your Nashville rental property, and your listing clearly states this. What will you do if a tenant contacts you about their service animal or support animal?
You have to allow them to submit an application, and if they are otherwise qualified, you have to approve that application even if they’re moving in with a service dog or an emotional support cat. The fair housing laws we’ve been talking about do not see those animals as pets. They’re seen as accommodations, and they’re legally protected.
You cannot charge a pet fee, deposit, or rent. Again, that animal is not a pet.
Screening Tenants Objectively and Consistently with Fair Housing in Mind
Once the advertising and marketing process has been completed in a way that is fair housing-compliant, it’s time to collect applications and screen tenants.
The most important thing you’ll want to do to protect yourself and comply with fair housing laws is to establish a set of standard rental criteria. Once you have these standards in place, make sure they’re well-documented in writing. Not only do you want them in writing, but you also want to disseminate them to all interested applicants. Hand them out before tenants apply for your rental home. This will save you a lot of time on unqualified renters and give your prospects the opportunity to self-screen. If they know their credit won’t meet your minimum credit score, they won’t apply. If they know their income level is lower than what you’re looking for, they’ll look for a different home.
The standard rental criteria you establish will protect you against claims of discrimination because it demonstrates you’re screening fairly and objectively. Consistency is very fair housing-friendly.
Screen each application against the exact requirements, otherwise, you could be accused of discrimination.
Here’s an example: Let’s say your standard rental criteria identifies a minimum credit score for approval. Maybe that credit score is 600. If you deny one applicant because of a 580 credit score, you cannot approve a tenant with a 560 credit score. You can be accused of discriminating against the tenant who was denied. Maybe that’s not the actual reason for your denial. But you’ll have to show why you rejected the applicant with the 580 credit score, and it can’t be for their credit. You’ll also have to explain why you approved the applicant with the 560 credit score, especially since they did not meet your pre-established qualifications.
Set up the standards you seek in terms of credit, income, criminal history, and rental references. This will make it easy for you to move through the application process because you’ll know exactly who is approved and who is not just by objectively looking at the data.
Fair housing laws can be difficult to navigate, and they change frequently, making it even more challenging to keep up. We understand the toll this can take on landlords and want to help. Leverage our knowledge, resources, and tools to keep you from making expensive legal mistakes.
As you can see, fair housing is hardly an issue you want to leave to chance. Make sure you have a solid understanding of the law and that all of your practices and procedures are in full compliance. Need help? We’re here to provide it. Contact us at Apex Ventures, Inc. for all of your Tennessee property management questions.
