Fair Housing

(00:00) Speaker: It's time for AMG's 2023 Community Leaders Series Podcast Edition. Over the last three decades, AMG has worked to make the role of community leaders more effective and less of a headache. The seminar topics are a response to our Executive board members have requested.

(00:17) Speaker: What you're saying is that an association wouldn't be able to discriminate against a same sex couple. There are some questions you can't ask.

(00:28) Speaker: And now here's your host and CEO of AMG, Paul K. Mengert.

(00:33) Paul K. Mengert: Welcome everyone, to the AMG 2023 Community Leaders Series Podcast Edition. This episode is proudly sponsored by Kerns Landscaping, a company specializing in landscaping and lawn care since 1997. For more information about Kerns landscaping and the services they provide, please visit their website at kernslandscaping.com or give them a call at (336)215-1131. In today's podcast, we're going to be discussing the crucial topic of Fair Housing. I'm honored to be with my friend and distinguished colleague, attorney Reggie Belcher from the Turner Padgett Law Firm, and he's speaking to us today from his offices in Columbia, South Carolina. Reg, welcome to our little podcast show.

(01:25) Reggie Belcher: Thank you, Paul. Good to be here today.

(01:27) Paul K. Mengert: As I mentioned, Reg is a partner and shareholder with Turner, Paget, Graham, and Laney Law Firm. He practices specializing in employment and discrimination law. And one of the things Reg has told me over the years is that the employment discrimination laws, and the housing discrimination laws are very parallel. So, he is in a good position to help with this. He works with companies and associations and others on HR audits and training supervisors and managers on best practices and developing necessary practices and procedures. As he's a certified specialist in employment and labor law through the South Carolina Supreme Court. Reg is Turner Pageant's Practice Group Manager for the Workplace Litigation Team, which includes attorneys who practice in labor, employment law, worker's compensation, professional liability, and licensing law. Reg, thanks so much for being here. I think I've adequately explained to our community leaders that you're an expert in this area, and I know you've done several presentations over the last 5 or 10 years for community associations. And I know one of the things that I believe qualifies you to really be helpful to our community leaders is the fact that you served as on a community association board of directors yourself. So, you kind of know some of the things that these guys, men, and women, are really trying to do the best for their neighborhoods get involved with and face. So, I want to jump right in and ask you to explain what Fair Housing is and why it is important to our clients. I know they all feel as though none of them discriminate but tell us why this is important and why the government's really focused on it.

(03:21) Reggie Belcher: Sure. And let's look at fair housing as sort of a broad umbrella. And there are various laws that fall under that umbrella. For example, we have the Federal Fair Housing Act. Almost every state has its own state law version of the Fair Housing Act. And those laws, the state laws, typically are very similar, but not exactly the same as the Federal Fair Housing Act. Sometimes under certain limited situations, HOA's will be subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act on issues that involve specifically race discrimination, race harassment, race, retaliation. We have a federal law that would apply. That's Title 42 of the United States Code, Section 1981, and we refer to that just generically as section 1981. Virtually every state has nonprofit statutes that apply to HOA's because HOA’s are set up as non-profits. And then finally, every state has their own separate HOA laws that are separate and distinct from all the other laws that I just mentioned. And the state HOA laws deal with things like the proper conduct and behavior of members of a board of directors and HOA's have to timely give documents and so forth and answer questions from homeowners, members of HOA when they ask them. And so, you've got this broad spectrum of different laws that apply to HOA's under this umbrella of fair housing. And then you have all the cases from state and federal courts that interpret all these laws. And then you have the state agencies, you have a state agency in every state. In North Carolina, you have a North Carolina Fair Housing Administration, South Carolina, you have the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. Those are two examples. And then at the federal level, you have the Housing and Urban Development Agency that administers and deals with fair housing. Sometimes the federal courts and the state courts will disagree on fair housing issues. Sometimes HUD will disagree with what state agencies have done. So, I just generically look at fair housing from a legal standpoint, and I'll sum it up this way. It's complex and it can be very, very messy. Now let's focus just for a minute on the Fair Housing Act, which is really the heart of the umbrella, the Federal Fair Housing Act. And it's much like employment laws that we see in our workplaces. And it's like those because it has a prohibition. It prohibits discrimination, harassment, and retaliation on various protected categories. This is going to be similar to the workplace. The categories are disability, race, gender, color, national origin, religion, familial status, and LGBTQ status. So, in other words, it's unlawful for an HOA to allow discrimination, harassment or to retaliate against someone who has acted to pursue their rights under the Fair Housing Act with regard to any one of those protected categories.

(06:57) Paul K. Mengert: If you don't mind, just run back through that list again, because I think that's really important for our listeners.

(07:03) Reggie Belcher: It is important for the listeners and the list, again, it's unlawful under the Fair Housing Act to allow discrimination, harassment or to retaliate against someone who's exercised their rights on the basis of disability, race, gender, color, national origin, religion, familial status, and LGBTQ status. And the state equivalent of the Fair Housing Act, the various states, their fair housing laws are substantially similar in this regard to the Fair Housing Act.

(07:40) Paul K. Mengert: Reg, I'm going to take us into one of our newsbreaks and we'll be right back to explore this a little bit further.

(07:50) Speaker: And now it's time for your HOA Solutions Today newsbreak.

(07:54) Newsbreak: Georgetown, Texas is witnessing the development of an innovative homeowner's association concept tailored for numerous 3D printed homes. These extraordinary dwellings are expected to be priced starting at $900,000, requiring a $5,000 deposit for applications. Within the HOA residents will enjoy a range of impressive amenities, including a bath house, restaurant, hammam and an infinity pool. These amenities will be shared with a campground hotel also constructed using 3D printing technology all situated on the same property. As part of the ongoing development, El Cosmico, currently occupying a 21-acre plot, will relocate to a newly constructed 3D printed building on a vast 60 plus acre property that it will share with residential homes. The homes themselves will be printed directly on-site encompassing layers ranging from 1200 to 2200ft². These 2-, 3- or 4-bedroom homes have been meticulously designed to harmonize with the natural landscape, boasting soft shapes, curved surfaces, and domes, as stated in the press materials. The move in date is projected to be sometime during the second half of 2024. To read the full story, visit HOAcommunityleaders.com.

(09:04) Paul K. Mengert: We're back. I'm Paul K. Mengert and we're here with Reggie Belcher discussing Fair Housing. Reg, before we went to our little newsbreak, you mentioned familiar. Help me with that family status. Yeah, that's a word that's always hard to pronounce. And this is an area I think we see a lot of, uh, potential problems for associations. Explain how you say that word and what it means and what we need to watch out for.

(09:36) Reggie Belcher: Sure. And this is an area under the fair housing laws that we don't see in our workplaces. So, this is a little different for folks who sit on boards of directors who might say, well, I'm familiar with this type of stuff because I've been educated on it and trained on it in the workplace. But the Fair Housing Act is unique in that it prohibits discrimination, harassment, and retaliation on the basis of familial status, meaning that it protects the rights of families, in particular families with children who are under the age of 18. And this is one of those laws that is not intuitive in any way. And it's very common to see HOAs violate the Fair Housing Act or the state equivalent on familial status in this way. I'm going to give you an example, Paul. Let's say we have a swimming pool that is a community pool, and the HOA is in charge of the pool, and there are children under the age of 18 in the neighborhood and the neighborhood doesn't have a lifeguard on duty. So, for safety purposes, the pool posts a notice that children under the age of, pick a number, under the age of 12, are prohibited from swimming in the pool or in the deep end of the pool or without an adult. On its face, that looks like a very common sense, reasonable restriction based on safety. But it's possible that if pressed by a homeowner, that that could be construed as discrimination based on familial status because you're treating a minor under the age of 18 differently than you are an adult under that situation. That's a classic example of a potential Fair Housing Act violation based on familial status.

(11:35) Paul K Mengert: I'm sure that got the attention of a lot of our listeners because I certainly remember growing up in a community pool where, you know, the first ten minutes of every hour was reserved for adults and the kids all had to get out and sit on the sidelines. But that is now a violation of fair housing. If an association wanted to have a time designated for lap swimming, for example, but it didn't have any age restriction associated with it. Could you have a time where you can only swim laps in the pool?

(12:08) Reggie Belcher: I think you could as long as you did and as you said, tied to any particular age where we're not essentially punishing folks or limiting folks minors under the age of 18 and as long as the rule wouldn't affect anyone else's protected status, as long as it didn't have a disparate impact on disabled individuals, folks who are minorities, women, any of those protected categories that we've mentioned several times.

(12:39) Paul K. Mengert: I've even heard an example that it wouldn't be proper to have a rule that babies have to wear plastic pants. That would be improper because it's calling out babies. But if you made the rule anyone who is incontinent had to wear plastic pants, that would be a proper rule.

(13:00) Reggie Belcher: I totally agree. I totally agree. You can't single out individuals who are connected to any one of these protected categories. Your rules have to be completely neutral. And so, this shows you the importance of your boards of directors who are in charge of formulating your HOA rules. They have to know these FHA rules in order to compile and enforce legally valid rules.

(13:29) Paul K. Mengert: Now, also, when you went down the list, I noticed that you mentioned LGBTQ, which a lot of people might not historically think of that as a protected class. But I understand that what you're saying is that an association wouldn't be able to discriminate against a same sex couple or a LGBTQ person based on that fact. Is that correct?

(13:57) Reggie Belcher: Yes, that is a fact. HUD has recognized that, and HUD protects homeowners with who identifies LGBTQ. I have a strong feeling that most, if not all of the state agencies who deal with these issues would agree with the HUD standard.

(14:14) Paul K. Mengert: I have had over the last couple of years a few inquiries from associations about like Pride Week signs or something like that. And I'm hearing you might think those were protected and maybe try not to get involved in pushing people to take those down.

(14:36) Reggie Belcher: I do agree with that.

(14:37) Paul K. Mengert: And, you know, a lot of this is kind of judgment calls for association leaders because there may be a rule against all signs. And if you enforce that fairly, you can probably then prohibit all signs. But I think the and I'm not trying to get involved politically at all in this, but if you're going to let one interest group have a sign that may seem very appropriate, you may be setting up that you have to let all interest groups have the signs, and particularly if it's a protected class, that's probably even a bigger problem than a political sign.

(15:13) Reggie Belcher: Well, it is. And I think there's a good degree of nuance here. And I think that just like in the workplace, HOA's have to look at these issues many times on a case-by-case basis and be as consistent as they possibly can with what they've done in the past. But let's go back to your sign example. There are ways in potential messages on signs or symbols on a sign that could raise a Fair Housing Act discrimination or harassment issue. For example, think of a sign or a symbol that might be offensive based on race. Maybe a homeowner erects a sign clearly showing Confederate flag, for example, you could have African American members of the homeowner’s association who would deem that offensive. And they might have a valid claim that it constitutes race harassment to allow that homeowner to continue showing a sign or flying a Confederate flag.

(16:13) Paul K. Mengert: Yeah, when you take on the role of being a homeowner association or condominium director or community leader, you really end up having to be the person or persons that end up balancing a lot of different people's rights. And unfortunately to some extent, the way our world has become is we're walking on eggshells, trying not to offend anybody. And, you know, it's really hard sometimes because not to offend somebody in one group, you're almost going to offend somebody in another group. And that's the that's the balance these communities have to find.

(16:47) Reggie Belcher: Well, it is. And again, I equate it to the workplace. Your HOA board is essentially acting in a human resources type function, the way human resources departments act within a business. Your members of an HOA are essentially like employees of the company and the board, much like the HR department in the company, is in charge of formulating and enforcing valid policies and practices.

(17:19) Paul K. Mengert: Reg, that I just think this is a very helpful discussion for our for our community leaders. We have another community leader series newsbreak and we'll be right back with Reg Belcher from Turner Padgett Law Firm in Columbia, South Carolina.

(17:35) Speaker: And here's another HOA Solutions Today newsbreak.

(17:39) Newsbreak: Lawmakers in Carson City, Nevada, are currently deliberating a bill aimed at strengthening regulations concerning the towing of vehicles with expired license plates and community associations and apartment complexes, including the implementation of associated fees. Two years ago, Nevada lawmakers prohibited towing companies from removing cars in apartment complexes and homeowner association neighborhoods solely based on the expired registration. However, despite this existing law, the practice continues to occur due to misinterpretations. The new bill seeks to clarify the restrictions while providing avenues for victims to recover any cost incurred from illegal tows. AB 303 not only clarifies the restrictions on towing, but also enhances consumer protection for those who fall victim to an illegal tow. Under the proposed bill, individuals would have the right to file a claim in an attempt to recoup any expenses resulting from the unlawful towing, such as a lost income due to missed work. Additionally, the bill expands access to the state's hardship tariff program, which currently offers a 30% discount to eligible low-income individuals. However, individuals can only apply for this program once per year. It's important to note that this program, overseen by the Nevada Transportation Authority, was established as a part of a bill that passed in 2021. The 30% discount provided by the hardship tariff program surpasses the profit margin earned by towing companies for these particular tows. Let us know your thoughts on towing vehicles by leaving a comment at HOAcommunityleaders.com.

(19:07) Paul K. Mengert: Welcome back, folks. I'm Paul K. Mengert, discussing fair housing with a partner and shareholder from Turner Padgett, Reggie Belcher. Reggie, I think that this is really helpful for folks to understand what we're doing here. I know one of the things that we often have our managers tell clients when they hear disability request or fair housing request or, you know, just anything that might fall under this. We're pretty quick to say you better talk to your association lawyer. And why is that so important that they that they do that on the front end opposed to waiting until it might become a problem?

(19:50) Reggie Belcher: Well, I'll give you a couple of reasons why I think it's important to have a regular lawyer that your board knows and trusts and has a relationship with. The first is just like you said, a lawyer trained on these issues will be able to guide the board and stay out of legal problems and give advice and counsel to the board on these situations that aren't intuitive and that require a nuanced analysis. And only a lawyer has the resources go back if necessary, and research regulations or case law from a court to determine what exactly does the law requires in a particular circumstance. The second reason why I think it's important for an HOA to retain a lawyer is that it allows the board to discuss these legal issues with the protection of the attorney client privilege that the lawyer always provides. As long as you are discussing issues with a lawyer, whether in person, phone or in writing, the attorney client privilege applies. And it means that all the communications that the board members have with the lawyer are confidential and can't be discovered either in a pre-suit or during a hearing or at trial. And that's very important to be able to talk freely, knowing that it's confidential and can't be used against you. Well, have a third reason why I think it's important to use a lawyer and to be able to say that we have a regular lawyer that we consistently use for advice and counsel on issues is because if you do get upside down with HUD or one of the state agencies on these fair housing issues, it enables the HOA, if you get penalized and you're subject to a civil penalty, which is what happens when you violate the Fair Housing Act or a state fair housing law. It allows you to say, look, we've acted in good faith because we've always used a lawyer. And by acting in good faith, it gives the HOA leverage to negotiate down the amount of the civil penalties that the government can assess, and the penalties can be expensive, Paul. For example, under the Fair Housing Act, a first offense, single violation, the civil penalty can be almost $22,000. If it's a second violation within five years, it can be up to $54,000. And the penalty, if it happens more than twice in a seven-year period, can be up to $108,000, for a single violation. And so, it's very important I think to be able to have some leverage to negotiate those penalties down. The leverage you have is to show that we did everything possible to follow the law and comply with the law. And a key factor is we paid money to an outside third-party lawyer to do that. And the government nearly always agrees that that's an indicator of good faith.

(22:59) Paul K. Mengert: One of the things that I think a lot of our clients have been really successful with is when they get a request that's involving disabilities or possible protected class, I like to see it get turned over to the lawyer right away before any process really happens. So, that the lawyer's kind of managing the situation from day one. And the way I like to see that go, as you know, is to have the lawyer call up and talk to the person who's made the request and say basically to the to the homeowner, the association has asked me to handle this and advise them so that we can make sure we're protecting your rights. So, you know, as the lawyer, it's not an adversarial involvement. It's a transactional involvement where the lawyer's role is to get all the facts and then tell the parties, here's what the law provides in this. So, if the association wants to deny the request, the lawyer can help advise them of what grounds they may have, if any, to deny it. And so going into it, not knowing there's a problem, I remember a case from a few years ago and I don't I don't recall, Reg, whether you were involved in this, but their association ended up having a fair housing complaint. But the attorney was kind of the star witness because I know you weren't the attorney, but I think you might have been involved for one of the other parties. But the attorney basically was what I called them up and I asked them this, and here's why I determined that it was not a was not a violation. And basically, what the attorney had done is he had found out that, yes, the person had received a violation notice about a certain behavior, but so had a lot of other people in the community. So just because you're in a protected class doesn't mean you're exempt to the rules. It just means you have to be treated like everybody else. I really emphasize to our to our clients, don't wait till you get a call from an investigator saying we have an alleged violation to get the attorney involved. The attorney really ought to be involved in the very front end of not only deciding what we're going to do, but frankly, don't forget the getting all the facts together, because you don't want to make a decision on things until you have the facts. And often I see, particularly because a board only meets once a month or once a quarter, you know, they have something come up, but they don't really have all the facts. And you just really can't make these decisions without getting all the facts. And if you don't have a lawyer, you don't even know the questions to ask sometimes. So, it's really important. And I Reg, I'll just I will appreciate you commenting on this. I understand particularly with ADA, there's some questions you can't ask, and those questions may not be intuitive to people. Give some examples of why it might be a bad idea for a well-intentioned community association president to call somebody with good intentions, but then may be asked the wrong questions.

(26:08) Reggie Belcher: Sure. Let's talk about it just in terms of what you said, disability, because I see this frequently. Let's say someone asks for an accommodation for their disability and I'll give you a common example. Someone who says I need a wheelchair ramp built to help me get in and out of the front door because I have a medical condition, a disability, that has impaired my mobility. HOA's covenants or bylaws say you have to get clearance from an architectural committee to modify your dwelling. Under the particular covenants, the board might read it and say, based on the provisions in the covenants, you're not entitled to this. Well, that's typically the wrong answer if the person really does have a disability. So, the first thing you need to do is understand that the fair housing laws, state and federal, trump your covenants and bylaws. Okay? Second thing in this scenario is you have to figure out first, is the person disabled? And then if they are disabled, do we have to accommodate? Well, the Fair Housing Law is much like the Americans with Disabilities Act, are not intuitive and there are prohibited questions. But yet the law requires you to engage in what's called an interactive process, a dialogue with the homeowner to determine whether they're actually disabled. So, you have to ask something, and you have to engage in a dialogue, but you can't ask too much. For example, you are allowed to ask for, can you give me some documentation from your treating physician, showing that you have a disability and that you need this accommodation that's permissible. But let's say the homeowner provides you with a note from a treating physician. The Fair Housing Act wouldn't allow you to necessarily disagree with what the doctor said, and you wouldn't be able to go back and require, for example, the homeowner to get a second opinion, or you couldn't require a homeowner to go to a doctor of the HOA's choice. You have to accept the documentation provided by the homeowner. And you can't ask a bunch of specific questions about the doctor's opinion. So yes, there are a lot of limits, particularly under disability, that hamstring you and really lawyers who deal with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Laws are in the best position to know what questions to ask and not to ask.

(28:48) Paul K. Mengert: Reg, I always enjoy talking to you, but hearing all this is making my head start to hurt so I can I can really see why it's absolutely required that if you're going to go down this path and associations often have no choice but to go down this path, they've got to get a qualified attorney to help them navigate that. We're going to take one final newsbreak and we'll be back to sum it all up.

(29:15) Speaker: And now our final HOA Solutions Today newsbreak.

(29:19) Newsbreak: The board of directors of a condominium association in Hawaii holds a responsibility of making decisions on behalf of the condo owners, regardless of whether the community consists of a small building with four units or a large complex with hundreds of units. Their fiduciary duty encompasses various tasks, including setting maintenance fees and allocating funds for significant repairs that can amount to millions of dollars. A proposal currently under consideration in Hawaii's State Legislature aims to mandate leadership training for condo board members. The curriculum of this training would be developed by the Real Estate Commission. However, critics argue that organizations like the Hawaii Chapter of CAI already provide free training sessions, both in person and online for directors and owners. They believe that imposing these additional requirements would only hinder the recruitment of owners willing to serve on condo boards. Hawaii has approximately 2000 condominium buildings and complexes throughout the state. Hawaii lawmakers introduced a bill that would require board members to successfully complete a board leadership course within 90 days of being elected. SB 729, after undergoing several amendments by the Senate and House lawmakers, currently awaits its fate in the Conference Committee before the Legislature adjourns. The bill stipulates that budgeting for the sprinkler installation will be mandatory for buildings deemed necessary by the Honolulu Fire Department. As per the amended bill's current language, the state auditor would be tasked with evaluating a proposal within the legislation. This proposal will require condo board members to review an association's articles of incorporation, bylaws, rules, and regulations within 90 days and complete a board leadership course within the first year. Let us know your thoughts on mandated board training by leaving a comment at HOACommunityLeaders.com.

(31:04) Paul K. Mengert: We're back, everyone, as we close out this podcast episode. I think it's really important to remember three things when it comes to navigating your fair housing and possible discrimination issues. And, you know, number one is you've got to understand the groups that you can't discriminate against. And we're going to put it up in our comments and on our website, the protected classes that include families and LGBTQ. And I point those two out, particularly because I think sometimes people don't realize that those are included. My second key takeaway is that there is also a concept of retaliation, that if somebody says, hey, I think I'm being discriminated against, you can then not retaliate against them in any way by treating them differently than somebody who hasn't filed a complaint. And finally, the third and most important point, I think, on all of this is when you hear anybody expressing possible concerns about discrimination in terms of fair housing or disabilities, you really need to get your lawyer involved at the earliest time so he can help you. He or she can help you navigate through the questions you can ask, the questions you can't ask, and how you might style your responses to somebody because there may be very proper ways to accomplish your objective by writing it up in one way. But if you do it in a different way, it could be construed as very improper. Reg, I really appreciate you being with me, and I hope you'll give our listeners a comment on my three takeaways from our conversation.

(32:50) Reggie Belcher: Well, Paul, I'm in agreement with you and I'm going to wrap up this way on my end and give you some sage advice for your boards to follow, hopefully. I've dealt with boards, HOA, boards of all sizes for many years, and they differ in terms obviously, of the expertise that they have depending on the particular makeup of a board. What I see frequently with most boards is that most boards are great in learning bylaws and covenants and enforcing bylaws and covenants. But most boards don't know enough about Fair Housing Act issues involving discrimination, harassment, or retaliation. I think it's a weakness of most HOA boards everywhere that I've seen. And so, the real question is how do you overcome it? And I encourage HOA boards to approach it like employers approach these issues in the workplace. Your HOA board, again, is sort of like a human resources department or like a group of managers. They're in charge of enforcing this law and making sure that we're following it. So, what do you do at work? At work you would provide training to your managers so that they understand those obligations. So, I would train your board members so that they understand what the Fair Housing Act requires in terms of prohibiting discrimination, retaliation and harassment based on these protected categories. Train them. I would put together a handbook or a manual for the board on these Fair Housing Act issues. In particular I would include a policy on sexual harassment. HUD has made sexual harassment a focal point in recent years. So again, just like the workplace where you would be familiar with like an employee handbook that would contain policies like this. I would have a handbook or a manual for the board, and then I would have a policy. A formal policy that says this HOA doesn't allow and prohibits discrimination, harassment or retaliation based on all these areas and I would publish the policy and provide a copy to the homeowner so that they know they have certain legal protections. And all this would set you up nicely as an HOA if you ever have a dispute before HUD or before a state agency to show again, look, we've acted in good faith and have attempted to follow the law. We trained our board on these issues. We adopted a handbook or a manual for the board to use on these issues. We have a formal policy, and we communicated the policy with all the members of the HOA, the whole neighborhood. And if you do that, you put yourself well down the road to, number one, compliance. And number two, showing that, hey, even if there is an issue, we've acted in good faith and you're going to have a lot of leverage to negotiate those civil penalties downward.

(36:04) Paul K. Mengert: Great sage advice, Reg. We really appreciate you being here with us today. And thank you to everyone for tuning in, particularly Reg, for speaking with us on this very important Fair Housing topic. I'd also like to sincerely thank our episode sponsor, Kerns Landscaping, a company specializing in landscaping and lawn care since 1997. For more information about Kerns Landscaping and the services they provide, please visit their website at www.kernslandscaping.com or give them a call at (336) 215-1131. I'm Paul K. Mengert, your host for the AMG 2023 Community Leaders Series Podcast Edition. If you would like to explore more of our 2023 podcast edition and access the CLS content, please visit HOACommunityLeadersSeries.com.

(37:03) Speaker: Thanks for listening to 2023 AMG's Community Leaders Series Podcast Edition. To find more information on this episode, please visit HOACommunityLeaders.com. This podcast is a production of BG Ad Group.

(37:18) Speaker: All rights reserved.

• It's important to know and understand the groups that you can’t discriminate against.

• If someone feels as though they are being discriminated against, we must remember to treat them fairly and equally.

• When you hear anybody expressing possible concerns about discrimination in terms of fair housing or disabilities, you really need to get your lawyer involved at the earliest time so he or she can help you navigate through the process.

You can now apply to live in this 3d-printed texas neighborhood

Georgetown, Texas, is witnessing the development of an innovative homeowners association concept tailored for numerous 3D-printed homes. These extraordinary dwellings are expected to be priced starting at $900,000, requiring a $5,000 deposit for applications. Within the HOA, residents will enjoy a range of impressive amenities, including a bathhouse, restaurant, hammam, and infinity pool. These amenities will be shared with a campground hotel also constructed using 3D printing technology, all situated on the same property. As part of the ongoing development, El Cosmico, currently occupying a 21-acre plot, will relocate to a newly constructed 3D-printed building on a vast 60-plus-acre property that it will share with the residential homes. The homes themselves will be printed directly on-site, encompassing layouts ranging from 1,200 to 2,200 square feet. These two, three, and four-bedroom homes have been meticulously designed to harmonize with the natural landscape, boasting soft shapes, curved surfaces, and domes, as stated in the press materials. The move-in date is projected to be sometime during the second half of 2024. To read the full story, go to HOACommunityLeaders.com.

Companies still illegally towing poor people’s cars, despite 2021 law

Lawmakers in Carson City, Nevada, are currently deliberating a bill aimed at strengthening regulations concerning the towing of vehicles with expired license plates in community associations and apartment complexes, including the implementation of associated fees. Two years ago, Nevada lawmakers prohibited towing companies from removing cars in apartment complexes and homeowners association neighborhoods solely based on an expired registration. However, despite this existing law, the practice continues to occur due to misinterpretations. The new bill seeks to clarify the restrictions while providing avenues for victims to recover any costs incurred from illegal tows. AB 303 not only clarifies the restrictions on towing but also enhances consumer protection for those who fall victim to an illegal tow. Under the proposed bill, individuals would have the right to file a claim in an attempt to recoup any expenses resulting from the unlawful towing, such as lost income due to missed work. Additionally, the bill expands access to the state's hardship tariff program, which currently offers a 30% discount to eligible low-income individuals. However, individuals can only apply for this program once per year. It's important to note that this program, overseen by the Nevada Transportation Authority, was established as part of a bill passed in 2021. The 30% discount provided by the hardship tariff program surpasses the profit margin earned by towing companies for these particular tows. Let us know your thoughts on towing vehicles by leaving a comment at HOACommunityLeaders.com.

Bill might require training for volunteers who serve on condo boards

A condo association board in Hawaii holds the responsibility of making decisions on behalf of the condo owners, regardless of whether the community consists of a small building with four units or a large complex with hundreds of units. Their fiduciary duty encompasses various tasks, including setting maintenance fees and allocating funds for significant repairs that can amount to millions of dollars. A proposal currently under consideration in Hawaii's State Legislature aims to mandate leadership training for condo board members. The curriculum for this training would be developed by the Real Estate Commission. However, critics argue that organizations like the Hawaii Chapter of CAI already provide free training sessions, both in-person and online, for directors and owners. They believe that imposing this additional requirement would only hinder the recruitment of owners willing to serve on condo boards. Hawaii has approximately 2,000 condominium buildings and complexes throughout the state. Hawaii lawmakers introduced a bill that would require board members to successfully complete a board leadership course within 90 days of being elected. SB729, after undergoing several amendments by Senate and House lawmakers, currently awaits its fate in the conference committee before the Legislature adjourns. The bill also stipulates that budgeting for sprinkler installation will be mandatory for buildings deemed necessary by the Honolulu Fire Department. As per the amended bill's current language, the state auditor would be tasked with evaluating a proposal within the legislation. This proposal would require condo board members to review an association's articles of incorporation, bylaws, rules, and regulations within 90 days and complete a board leadership course within their first year. Let us know your thoughts on mandated board training by leaving a comment at HOACommunityLeaders.com.