Pot, Pitbulls, Parking and Perps, The Pitfalls of Fair Housing -PAAWW#18

Just When We Think We Know it All...How many of these questions can you confidently answer?

• Can residents smoke pot on your property? Does pot have the same rules as cigarettes? Can you make your residents stop smoking anything?
• Aren’t pitbulls dangerous? Can they be assist animals? 
• A prospect has a parrot and claims that it is a service animal. Can a bird do that? What about obvious fake doctors notes? 
• A resident has a new puppy and when questioned says that it is her emotional support animal. I think that isn’t true. What can I do?
• You are out of parking spaces. Do you have to let every disabled person have a reserved spot? What if other handicapped people park in a reserved spot? We have so many handicapped parking spaces that others can’t find a place to park? Is there a limit?
• Your boss is concerned about using social media. Can we get sued if you say the wrong things?
• Do we now have to rent to criminals?
• Do I have to print all my documents in different languages? Who is responsible for translating if the prospective resident doesn’t speak English?
• Can I evict a resident who keeps calling 911 because of her ex-spouse?
• Residents are complaining about the smell of marijuana smoke coming from one particular apartment. We have asked the pot smoker about it and he denies it. What should we do?
• The maintenance tech found a marijuana plant growing in a resident’s apartment. It’s just one little plant. Can we just ignore it?
• A female resident says that one of our employees patted her on her bottom. He says they always hug when they say hello and she usually initiates the hug. Do we have a problem?

How confident are you that your answers are correct? 

More and more often discrimination claims are filed regarding accommodating requests for reserved parking, allowing Bulldogs and other "aggressive" breeds as assistance animals, marijuana use, and how to handle and answer questions from persons who have been incarcerated.

Laws and Rulings change, not knowing current laws is no defense in a court of law.

Anne Sadovsky CAM, CAPS, NAAEI Advanced Facilitator, and Lifetime Member AAGD, has been in the industry five decades and is also the former VP of Marketing and Education for Lincoln Property Company.

She is a contributing writer for many publications and is often quoted in articles pertaining to the apartment industry. She was named one of the top trainers in the industry by MultiHousing News and both the Brainstorming Conference and the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas have honored Anne with Legends Awards. She has flown over eight million miles sharing her knowledge and wit. Her success story has been featured in many national magazines including Money, Texas Business and Ladies Home Journal. Clients choose Anne because she is multifaceted, offers many topics, shares skills and tools that are life changing, common sense, fun but no nonsense and that increase NOI. Her Fair Housing training shares knowledge and critical information in an interesting and entertaining manner.

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