Just when you think they can’t come up with another protected class, the federal government has done it again. The last protected class we told you about was convicted felons who served their time, and it’s illegal to discriminate against them. Now, there’s a new class of people against whom you cannot discriminate when it comes to Livermore rental property.

Potential Tenants with Limited English Proficiency

The new term you need to be aware of is LEP, which stands for Limited English Proficiency. If you turn someone down because they are speaking a different language and don’t speak English very well, you are at risk of being prosecuted for discrimination by the federal government. You’re probably already familiar with the fair housing laws in Livermore, and now you need to be aware of this rule as well.

Using Reasonable Translations

If there is any reasonable translation available, you’re required to use it. In California, if you communicate in another language such as Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, or Tagalog, you are required to provide all the documents for your rental properties in that same language. Some people might not want to try and speak a foreign language in their offices because they don’t have the ability to do all the foreign language contracts. But the federal government says that’s no excuse, and they will frown upon landlords who use that as a reason for not negotiating with the LEP people.

Property Management Livermore

At AVR Properties, we do have a fairly good mastery of English, and we don’t know any other languages. So, if someone is coming in with a different language, we ask them to bring a translator who is an adult and can translate appropriately, read the contracts, which are in English, and answer any questions. If they still don’t understand, we will work with the translator in trying to come up with a complete understanding of what we expect and what they should expect from us.

So the new discrimination class is LEP, and you need to prepare for that as a landlord.

I wonder what they’ll come up with next.

If you have any questions about this issue or anything pertaining to Livermore property management, please contact us at AVR Properties.