As a Roseville landlord, keeping up with housing laws may seem like a tedious part of ensuring you don’t make a mistake. It’s more than that. Staying up-to-date with local and national housing laws is a crucial part of your role as rental property owner. Failing to stay compliant can easily lead to hefty fines, legal fees, and a tarnished reputation. You could have your tenants dragging you to court because of a botched security deposit return. You might face a fair housing investigation because of the language you used in your listing.
It’s important to stay current with national and California housing laws. Let’s explore why that is, and let’s also talk about how you can ensure that you’re compliant.
Avoid Legal Issues
The most important reason to stay up-to-date with national and California housing laws is because you want to avoid legal issues and expensive legal mistakes. Missing out on even a minor detail could mean facing costly legal battles with tenants that can harm your reputation, causing damage to both your personal and professional life.
Legal mistakes are often unintentional. However, not knowing the law is never an excuse for breaking it. When you rent out property, you’re expected to understand what is required of you.
Avoiding legal issues saves you money. It also saves you from frustrating and time-consuming court battles and legal problems. By understanding and following the laws, you’re also making yourself more reputable in the community, in the industry, and with your tenants.
Legal Compliance Protects Your Investment
Owning a rental property or a portfolio of properties will be a significant investment, and staying up-to-date with the applicable laws is one way to ensure that it’s always a secure investment. By following the law, you can ensure that your property remains a safe place for tenants to live, which can help minimize the risk of damages and repairs caused by non-compliance.
Habitability laws are real, and you always have to provide tenants with a safe, clean place to live. There must be electricity and water. Tenants need heat in the winter. They need to be free of sewer issues and fire hazards.
The legal requirement to maintain your home will protect the condition – and the value – of your investment property.
Tenant Relationships Depend on Knowing the Law
Housing laws are continually evolving, so keeping up-to-date with them is crucial to ensuring that you’re always on top of new requirements or recommendations. This can include everything from physical requirements for rental properties, language required in the lease agreement, and even documentation that must be provided to tenants. By staying on top of these changes, landlords can ensure that they’re always providing the best possible service to their tenants while minimizing the risks of fines or legal troubles.
This helps you to maintain good relationships with your tenants. By ensuring that your property meets the most current regulations, you can operate your property more transparently and instill confidence in your tenants. Additionally, by proactively dealing with potential issues, you can prevent them from escalating and fostering positive relationships that contribute to tenant retention.
How to Stay Current with Legal Requirements
Now that we understand the importance of staying up-to-date with these laws, how do you do it? For many property owners, keeping with the new legislation can feel like a full-time job. When it comes to fair housing, habitability, security deposits, eviction, rent control, and Section 8, how is it possible to cover every possible base?
As property managers, we’re always receiving information about new laws and the interpretation of laws that have come before the court. We listen to podcasts and we read blogs. We attend conferences and we subscribe to newsletters.
You can do the same. In fact, you should.
By working with a Roseville property management company, you have an easy path to legal compliance. Your management team can be counted on to know the laws and how they’re applied.
Independent landlords have a trickier time. Make sure you have some great resources and a willingness to digest sometimes complex information. This will help you stay up-to-date and avoid potential legal pitfalls.
Some of the most pressing laws that need your attention federally are:
- The Fair Housing Act
- The Americans with Disabilities Act
- The Fair Credit Reporting Act
You need to know how to screen all applications consistently. You need to understand what kind of language is acceptable in your marketing materials. You need to know how to collect, hold, and discard private information you gather while screening tenants.
When it comes to California state laws, the most important issues of the day continue to be:
- The Tenant Protection Act. You’ll need to wrap your head around rent control and just cause eviction. Decide, first, if these laws apply to your property or if you’re exempt. Then, follow the legal requirements, including language in your lease agreement. This law requires that you consider rental applications from Section 8 tenants, who can use their housing vouchers as a source of income.
- Security Deposit laws. There’s a limit to how much you can collect, and at the end of the lease period, you’re required to offer tenants a pre-move-out inspection. The deposit must be returned to the tenants within 21 days of move-out, and if you’re keeping any or all of that deposit, an itemized statement will be required.
Talk to a Roseville property management company when you’re confused about a law or not sure you’re interpreting it correctly. You don’t want to make assumptions and then find out later, in court, how wrong you were.
As property managers, we cannot give you legal advice. We’ll refer you to our partners who are attorneys. What we can tell you is how these laws apply to your rental property and what you can and cannot do in an effort to remain in compliance.
We’ve seen a lot of legal mistakes, and they’re always more expensive than you’d imagine. Let’s avoid all that. Contact us at Action Properties with any questions or to ask for help.
