Occupancy Standards And Fair Housing: A Short Summary

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Occupancy standards are an issue which come up from time to time. On the one hand, a family certainly should have the right to decide the size of the apartment home they need and/or can afford.  On the other hand, management has a legitimate health and safety right to put a reasonable limit in place.  We do not want, and the law will not support, eight people living in a one bedroom unit.  The issue, of course, is where those two points intersect in 2017.

Going back as far as 1992, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development issued guidance (known as the Keating Memorandum) which provided that a limit of two people per bedroom was presumptively reasonable. Since that time, however, there has been a shift away from a rigid “two people per bedroom” standard. Some states and localities have passed laws concluding that three people per bedroom is now reasonable, particularly when affordable housing is in limited supply and if rents are perceived to be high. Other localities (and the prevailing view) is that occupancy standards should be judged on a sliding scale based on the size of the apartment home. To illustrate, does the home have a den? Are the rooms large? If so, then three heartbeats per bedroom could well be reasonable. If the apartment is tiny, then perhaps two people per bedroom is appropriate.

To be sure, from a leasing office perspective, the old standard was easier to apply. As management’s lawyer, I always prefer when my employees have less discretion.

Also, here is a related issue that regularly comes up: a married couple rents a one bedroom unit. The woman gets pregnant. All good. But now there are going to be three people in the apartment. And what if it is a small home? In addition to occupancy standards, management needs to be cognizant of the protection for “familial status” in the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Management will not look good attempting to evict a family with an infant out of a one bedroom unit. The best advice is to talk with a lawyer like to ensure your property has policies in place to address these situations.

Just A Thought.

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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