Fair Housing Audits: Steps Property Managers Can Take to Ensure Compliance

Fair housing laws aim to eliminate discrimination in real estate transactions, making property managers crucial in ensuring equal access to housing. Proactive measures like conducting audits can help monitor compliance with these regulations, ensuring equal opportunities for all.

Learn About Fair Housing Laws

Property managers must be knowledgeable about federal, state, and local fair housing laws, which prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or other factors that could disadvantage or discriminate in housing matters, making familiarity with these laws crucial.

Develop Audit Criteria

Formulate criteria to assess fair housing compliance at each property you manage. Review rental agreements, advertising material, lease agreements, and tenant interactions as well as accommodation requests to evaluate property management practices. Create a checklist to measure these aspects effectively.

Evaluate Policies and Procedures

To ensure fair housing principles are aligned with property management policies, review tenant screening criteria, occupancy policies, pet policies, and eviction procedures. Revisions may be necessary to remove biases and ensure equal treatment among tenants and applicants, ensuring equality of treatment.

Train staff members

All staff involved with managing property operations should receive comprehensive training. Make sure they understand their responsibilities under fair housing laws, as well as have the skills and knowledge needed to apply non-discriminatory methods effectively. Topics such as implicit bias awareness and fair housing regulations should also be covered during training.

Evaluate Marketing and Advertising Practices

Verify your marketing materials and ads meet fair housing regulations by eliminating language or imagery that could be misconstrued as discriminatory while verifying rental listings accurately reflect available units without including any discriminatory statements or references.

Undergo Mock Audits

Simulate fair housing inspections by conducting mock audits. Evaluate how your property management team adheres to fair housing policies and procedures when in actual practice situations. Identify any gaps or deficiencies and take corrective actions as needed for improved compliance efforts.

Document Audit Findings

Document your findings from fair housing audits in detail, noting any areas not complying or where improvements could be made. Keep detailed records on audit reports, corrective actions taken, and training sessions conducted. These documents could serve as evidence of compliance should any legal disputes or inquiries arise.

Implement Continuous Monitoring

Set up a system for tracking and evaluating fair housing practices at your property. Review and update policies periodically, conduct staff training sessions regularly, monitor compliance to audit criteria, and stay abreast of changes to fair housing legislation.

Fair housing audits are crucial for property managers to ensure compliance with anti-discrimination legislation and provide equal housing opportunities for tenants. By promoting fairness and inclusion, they can create welcoming living environments and contribute to community-building efforts. Fair housing not only benefits tenants but also strengthens communities, promoting diversity and inclusion in real estate management.