Question for the landlord forum # of residents - Landlord Forum thread 325088

Question for the landlord forum # of residents by Q on September 30, 2014 @18:08

How many is too many residents in a 3 bedroom house? I have been getting some very large families coming to look at my rental property. I prefer a working couple but will accept a limited amount of children 2 or 3?

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Re: Question for the landlord forum # of residents by B on September 30, 2014 @18:43	[ Reply ]

Whats very large? For a 3 bedroom home I would expect no more than 2 - 4 kids, Assuming the kids are younger. If a family with 6 kids and two adults came I would suggest they look for a bigger place. You can place your own limits. But excluding children will limit your pool of potential applicants. It all depends on your situation and what you are willing to tolerate. Good luck

Re: Question for the landlord forum # of residents by anon (CA) on September 30, 2014 @20:29	[ Reply ]

I was taught in college in a Broker class for property mgmt. that the rule was 2 per bedroom plus 1. So 3 bedroom equals 7 max.

Re: Question for the landlord forum # of residents

Re: Question for the landlord forum # of residents by MrDan (Georgia) on September 30, 2014 @21:18	[ Reply ]

From some training info on 'Occupancy Standards' Many landlords believe that as long as they follow a policy of “2 person per bedroom” that they will be fine. Unfortunately that is not always the case. There is no clear-cut occupancy guideline and as such there is confusion amongst landlords, management companies, and even the attorneys representing them. In what is referred to as the 'Keating Memo', the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) stated that it believes that “an occupancy policy of two persons per bedroom, as a general rule, is reasonable under the Fair Housing Act.” However, the memo goes on to say that “the reasonableness of any occupancy policy is rebuttable” and HUD clarifies that the memos it issued in the past on the subject of occupancy standards do not state or imply that HUD will determine compliance with the Fair Housing Act based solely on the number of people permitted in each bedroom. “Thus, the Department believes that in appropriate circumstances, owners and managers may develop and implement reasonable occupancy requirements based on factors such as the number and size of bedrooms and the overall size of the dwelling unit.” In the Keating Memo, HUD sets forth what factors it will consider when reviewing fair housing complaints involving occupancy issues: 1. Size of the bedroom and unit 2. Age of the children 3. Configuration of the unit 4. Other physical limitations of housing (i.e. capacity of the septic, sewer, or other building systems) 5. State and local law 6. Other relevant factors, such as: - If the landlord has made discriminatory statements - If the landlord has taken steps to discourage families with children from living in its housing - If the landlord has enforced its occupancy policies only against families with children The key issue or focus in discrimination cases that involve occupancy limits is always whether or not the landlord is discriminating against a family with children. So even if your occupancy policy is reasonable, if you make some discriminatory comment to the applicant, you can forget about hiding behind your occupancy standards. As such, an occupancy policy based on the number of children per unit is much less likely to be found to be reasonable than one which limits the number of persons per unit. http://www.theday.com/article/20121210/NWS01/121219954/1047/rss01 http://www.loansafe.org/doj-reaches-settlement-with-mississippi-rental-property-managers-for-discriminating-against-families-with-children http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2013/HUDNo.13-124 "I prefer a working couple but will accept a limited amount of children 2 or 3?" would most likely invite a complaint as being disciminating against families.

Re: Question for the landlord forum # of residents by Geoff (NY Upstate) on October 1, 2014 @10:37	[ Reply ]

Last time I checked our building and Fire code (and it has been a couple years.) There were these limitations: Minimum square footage required for a bedroom 70 square feet also required a minimum size window (Don't recall that off the top of my head). Minimum square footage per person in each bedroom was 50 square feet So a bedroom would need to be 100 square feet per bedroom before it could be used for two people. and yes there was an exception for an infant sharing a bedroom.

Re: Question for the landlord forum # of residents