[RPPTL LandTen] Resident Selection Criteria/Screening Task Force?

Thu Apr 7 11:23:42 PDT 2016

Dear Committee:

For what it's worth, below is my summary of the HUD memorandum that I
circulated to our property managers yesterday. If I missed something, or if
you have a suggested change, please let me know.

My company implemented similar changes to our criminal check procedure
about 3-4 months ago because it doesn't make financial sense to arbitrarily
reject tenants with minor one-off crimes, or DUI convictions from 10+ years
ago.

Sincerely,

James

----------------------------------

New HUD guidelines prohibit us from automatically rejecting tenant
applications based upon a prior arrest or criminal history.  Going forward,
an applicant's criminal history must be given an individual review to
determine whether we should reject the applicant based on a criminal issue.
After reviewing the HUD memo attached, we have four general requirements
that we need to follow:

First, we cannot reject a tenant because of an arrest, for any crime, where
the tenant was not ultimately convicted.  In the off chance that a criminal
court case is pending when the tenant makes an application, we may have
some leeway to review and reject (e.g. regarding creditworthiness, is the
tenant going to jail and will risk skipping out on our lease?).

Second, a rejection "must be necessary to achieve a substantial,
legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest". To do this, we must show that the
denial "accurately distinguishes between criminal conduct that indicates a
demonstrable risk to resident safety and/or property and criminal conduct
that does not".  We have to review the specific facts relating to the
arrest, including but not limited to (1) length of time between the
application and the conviction; (2) facts and circumstances of the crime
itself; and (3) risk to other tenants.

Third, as an exception to the above, there is a federal law that allows us
to continue rejecting tenants with drug distribution and drug manufacture
convictions.  Importantly, this exception does not include drug
*possession *convictions.

Finally, (and this should be obvious) our treatment of criminal issues on
tenant applications must be uniform.  We can't treat applicants with
similar criminal issues differently based upon their race, religion, etc.

As the attorney suggested in the email below, criminal backround rejections
should be limited to situations where the tenant has recent or multiple
convictions, and those involving theft, violence, or serious drug crimes.
There is admittedly a lot of gray area, but the ultimate question is
whether the tenant's conviction suggests a risk to our other tenants.

----------------------------

*--*

*James Gloverc: 954.254.0436e: GloverJamesR at gmail.com
<GloverJamesR at gmail.com>Linked-In
<http://www.linkedin.com/pub/james-glover/21/53/739>*

On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 1:23 PM, Kristen K. Jaiven <kristen at quadcompanies.com
> wrote:

> Harry,
>
> I agree we need an emergency task force for this matter. The Florida
> Association of Realtors circulated the following article yesterday:
> http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=336124.
>
> Thanks.
>
> *Kristen King Jaiven*
>
> *General Counsel *
>
> *The Signature Real Estate Companies*
>
> *901-C Clint Moore Road*
>
> *Boca Raton, FL  33487*
>
> *Ph:  561.705.0140 <561.705.0140>*
>
> *Direct Line: 561-300-6921 <561-300-6921>*
>
> *Email:  kristen at quadcompanies.com <kristen at quadcompanies.com>*
>
> www.SignatureRealEstateCompanies.com
> <http://www.signaturerealestatecompanies.com/>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: <landten-bounces at lists.flabarrpptl.org> on behalf of Harry Heist <
> harry at evict.com>
> Reply-To: 'RPPTL Landlord Tenant Committee' <landten at lists.flabarrpptl.org
> >
> Date: Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 12:57 PM
> To: 'RPPTL Landlord Tenant Committee' <landten at lists.flabarrpptl.org>
> Subject: [RPPTL LandTen] Resident Selection Criteria/Screening Task Force?
>
> We really need to create an *emergency task force* to come up with proper
> client advice for tenant screening in light of the April 4  HUD Guideline
> and the Supreme Court ruling.
>
>
>
> This is BIG stuff and we have no real guidance on this now.
>
>
>
> Nothing is more in question now. Nothing.
>
>
>
> Harry
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *LAW OFFICES OF HEIST, WEISSE & WOLK P.A. PH: 1 800 253 8428
> <1%20800%20253%208428> FAX: 1 800 367 9038 <1%20800%20367%209038> "Serving
> the Property Management Professional" Website:  **www.evict.com*
> <http://www.evict.com/>
> * Email: **harry at evict.com* <harry at evict.com>
>
> <https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heist-Weisse-Wolk-PA/343965575625870>
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