Tristan’s Landlord-Tenant Law Blog
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Tristan’s Landlord-Tenant Law Blog
Archive of: Fair Housing / Discrimination
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AASEW MEETING: "Companion Animals - When A Landlord Must Accept Them" on August 18, 2014
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in AASEW, Fair Housing / Discrimination, Seminars, Companion/Comfort Animals / Comments
I will be speaking at the AASEW's monthly meeting on the issue of companion/comfort animals and when a landlord must accept them in their rental properties.Disability-related complaints, including those that involve assistance animals, are the most common complaint filed with HUD over the past few years. While the definition of a "service animal" under the ADA is very limited and requires that the animal be specifically trained (and excludes ...
Read MoreOccupancy Standards . . . Not As Simple As "2 Persons Per Bedroom"
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, Occupancy Standards / Comments
Simply stated, occupancy standards focus on how many individuals can live in a rental unit. Landlords have the right to set reasonable, non-discriminatory, limits as to how many people can live in a rental unit. Many landlords believe that as long as they follow a policy of "2 person per bedroom" that they will be fine. Unfortunately that is not always the case. There is no clear-cut ...
Read MoreSo Let's Talk About . . . Companion/Comfort Animals In Rental Properties
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, State of Wisconsin, Reasonable Accommodations, Assistance Animals, Companion/Comfort Animals / Comments
I have been promising that I would blog about this topic for months (could it possibly be over a year even) and the time has finally come. So let's talk about companion/comfort animals in rental properties.Background:I will use the terms comfort animals and companion animals interchangeably throughout this post.So we are all on the “same page" a companion animal is an animal ...
Read More5 Things This Landlords' Attorney Wants For Christmas
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in AASEW, Fair Housing / Discrimination, Legislation, Milwaukee County, Reasonable Accommodations, Small Claims Court / Comments
With the coming of the holidays, comes list of gifts that people want for Christmas. So I thought I would put together one of my own. So here is a list of the top 5 things that this landlords' lawyer would like for Christmas. 5. That Tenants' Requests For Reasonable Accommodations To Allow for the Keeping of Companion/Comfort Animals Would Actually Be "Reasonable"The past few years -- and especially this past ...
Read MoreHUD Issues New Rule On "Discriminatory Effect" a.k.a Disparate Impact
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in AASEW, Fair Housing / Discrimination, Legislation, Protected Classes, Screening Tenants / Comments
HUD has issued a new Fair Housing “disparate impact” rule that may cause problems for landlords during the screening process. The new rule creates a new provision entitled “Prohibiting Discriminatory Effects” which defines “discriminatory effect” as situations in which a facially neutral (i.e. not discriminatory) housing practice can become discriminatory if it actually or predictably has an effect on a group of persons that are members of a protected ...
Read MoreYou Will Not Want To Miss AASEW's Fourth Annual Landlord Boot Camp on Saturday Feb. 25th
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Tenant Damage, Credit Checks, AASEW, Lead-Based Paint, Fair Housing / Discrimination, Protected Classes, Evictions, Late Fees, Notices, Collections, Emergency Assistance, City of Milwaukee, Screening Tenants, Rental Agreements, Rental Documents, Seminars, Pets, Security Deposit, Milwaukee County, Property Management, Mitigation of Damages / Re-Renting, Untenantability, Execution of Writ, State of Wisconsin, Self-Help Evictions, Right of Entry, Reasonable Modifications, Reasonable Accommodations, Rejecting Rental Applicants, Walkthroughs, De Novo Hearings, Earnest Money, Landlord Liability, Small Claims Court, Holdover Damages, Roommates, Smoke Detectors / Comments
Landlording can be pretty complex, with a seemingly never ending myriad of paperwork, rules, landlord-tenant laws and simple mistakes that can cost you thousands of dollars.The Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin's Fourth Annual “Landlord Boot Camp” can help you navigate these treacherous waters and teach you how to run your properties with greater profit and less hassles.I have given similar landlord-tenant law seminars to fellow attorneys, landlords, and property manager ...
Read MoreNew Federal Bill Would Add Two New Protected Classes To Federal Fair Housing Act
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, Legislation / Comments
On September 26, 2011 both chambers of the U.S. Congress introduced legislation that would extend housing discrimination laws to include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The HOME (Housing Opportunities Made Equal) Act was introduced by Sen. John Kerry and others. The bill would amend the Fair Housing Act to prohibit housing discrimination and intimidation on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.Wisconsin is one ...
Read MoreThree Wisconsin Landlords Charged with Violating Fair Housing Laws
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, State of Wisconsin / Comments
Three Wisconsin landlords have recently been charged with violating Fair Housing laws by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).First, in late July, HUD announced that it charged a husband and wife who own a rental property in Brown County with violating the Fair Housing Act for allegedly creatingdifferent rental requirements for a single mother and her son. The charge also alleges that the landlords’ lease agreement ...
Read MoreLargest Settlement of State Fair Housing Claim Occurs in Arizona
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination / Comments
A 2007 Fair Housing complaint filed by two Arizona tenants alleging that their apartment managers discriminated against them based on their race, nationality and religion, has resulted in the largest state Fair Housing claim to date.In 2007, Soha Abdelrahman and her husband Hany Obrahim filed a lawsuit against their Tempe, Arizona apartment managers claiming discrimination based upon their Arabic race, Egyption nationality and Muslim religion. The defendant in the ...
Read MoreA Landlord's Primer on "Reasonable Accommodations"
Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, Reasonable Accommodations / Comments
I am seeing an increase in tenants making "reasonable accommodations" requests during their tenancy. While similar to "reasonable modifications," which I blogged about a few weeks ago, reasonable accommodations are different.A reasonable accommodation request is one in which a tenant who has a disability asks his/her landlord to make an accomodation to the landlord's rules, policies, practices or services as a result of that disability. Wisconsin's ...
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