How to be a Landlord in Grand Rapids Do I Have to Rent to Anybody?

One question landlords often have is: do I have to rent to anybody? The answer is yes and no. Fair housing laws, which come from federal, state and local municipalities, protect all different classes of people against discrimination when it comes to housing. These classes include race, gender, religion and marital status. Some of our locally protected classes in Grand Rapids include source of income and sexual orientation. Make sure you find out what is protected in your area. In order to protect yourself, you need to find out what discrimination is, and make sure you are not treating those protected classes any differently than you are treating other potential tenants.

The most important thing you can do is to treat everyone the same. It will really protect you the most when you are doing your showings, screenings and applications. Every part of the leasing process, from the initial phone call to the signed lease should have the same standards and criteria for every potential renter. It will save you a lot of grief in the long term.

Sometimes, you will get tested. Local fair housing centers as well as the federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will often send out testers to ensure you are not doing anything discriminatory. People will call and ask very intentional questions to establish if you are abiding by all fair housing laws. These testers can sometimes be due to complaints that have been received about your rental policies, and sometimes they are just people checking to ensure discrimination is not happening. Make sure you are always doing things correctly so that when a tester does come along, you are in good shape.

We have a local fair housing center in Grand Rapids, and they are a great resource for property managers. We do a local annual training on how to prevent discrimination so we can be sure to avoid it. We learn about what it looks like, how people try to get away with it and what to do to ensure we are not discriminating unintentionally. If you have a similar resource in your area, you should feel free to contact them. They can help you figure out what to put in your advertising and assist you in staying on top of all fair housing regulations.

If you have any questions about who you are required to rent to, or how to avoid discriminating against tenants according to the fair housing laws, please contact us at Access Property Management Group.