The Landlord Times - Utah - July 2013

Page 1

Professional Publishing, Inc

July 2013 - Vol. 5 Issue 7

www.TheLandlordTimes.com

UTAH UTAH

SALT LAKE CITY • OGDEN • PROVO Official Publication of the

Utah's Leading Advocate for the Rental Housing Industry Ph: 888-244-0401 • www.uaahq.org

New Awards Process Announced SALT LAKE CITY • OGDEN • PROVO

Each year, the Utah Apartment Association honors the best and brightest in our industry at our annual Tribute Awards. Starting this year, we are pleased to announce major enhancements to our awards nomination and judging process that will move us forward to the next level of professionalism. First, the event will move from October to January, to get it out of the busy budget season and past the first of the year. Next, we will be adding four new awards including: Section 42 property of the Year (100%), Section 42 Property of the Year (Mixed), Government Subsidized Property of the Year, and Best Community or Company Website.

But the biggest change will be the judging process. Instead of one site visit or one interview, the new process will have three components of scoring for each property or individual. Each of these three elements will comprise a third of the total score, including: a) A form from the nominator explaining why the nominee deserves to win b) A process for the person nominated to explain why they should win c) An interview and/or a site visit. The interview process, which will now be 1/3 of the score, will also be changed. We will no longer be using vendors or management company personnel to judge. In-

State Law Prohibits Regular Inspections by Cities By L. Paul Smith, Utah Apartment Association In 2012, the state legislature passed legislation that prohibited cities from conducting inspections on rental properties without cause or complaint.

Professional Publishing, Inc PO Box 30327 Portland, OR 97294-3327

In effect, this replaced the previous structure where cities like Salt Lake City were authorized to conduct regular inspections every three years. The legislation arose out of efforts to curb Salt Lake City's good landlord program. The cities and the apartment association, which togethContinued on page 5

Current Resident or

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stead, we will be recruiting our UAA independent owners as well as volunteers from other apartment associations. We believe this will reduce any conflicts of interest. We are excited about these new changes and feel they will improve the prestige and value of the UAA Tribute Awards process. We invite you to participate by nominating a person or property today, using the following one page nomination form for each nominee. Remember, this one page form will be 1/3 of their score (Each nominee needs to be on a separate sheet). Continued on page 5

Discrimination Testers are BACK! By Kirk Cullimore, The Law Offices of Kirk A. Cullimore The Disability Law Center in Utah is seeking individuals to be testers in its attempt to find violations of the Fair Housing Act. An email went out in June requesting help in finding individuals to be testers: The Disability Law Center (DLC) is looking for people who are interested in serving as testers in its Fair Housing Testing Program. The DLC is charged with investigating certain types of housing discrimination complaints across in the State of Utah. Federal and State fair housing laws prohibit discriminatory practices in any housing industry related business or transaction.

While blatant acts of housing discrimination occur, more often the discrimination is subtle and hard to discover. Testing is one of the most important tools fair housing agencies, housing advocacy groups and others interested in fair housing, use to uncover discrimination. One of the most vital tools of our investigatory process is the fair housing tester. The DLC follows up complaints by creating testing situations—that is, simulations of housing transactions—to uncover violations of the fair housing laws. Testers call or visit apartments and then submit written reports about their experiences. Testers will receive a stipend for each test after completing a paid training session. Continued on page 3

IN THIS ISSUE:

JULY TOPICS

Know Where the Limits Are So You Can Standup to Overzealous Government ........ Page 4

1) Cleaning and Restoration: Minor disasters, smells, smoke… What can you do? 2) Inspections: Keeping your rental protected! 3) And more…

Be Sure to Do Inspections .......... Page 5 Products & Services Guide .................... Page 6


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