 We've got this facility from six to eight, and we want to ensure that we have enough time for each speaker that we have lined up this evening so they can provide the necessary information to assist the owner and the tenants, but also provide information for the landlords. So we're gonna open it up with the welcome. We have Councilwoman Tina Herbert, and so she's gonna come up and provide the welcome to everyone. Thank you, Ms. Kilgore, and you all give Ms. Felicia a hand. She is our new Community Development Director. If any of you all know me, that community development is close to my heart, so I'm always talking to Ms. Felicia. Good evening. I am really delighted that each and every one of you are here for the city's tenant and landlord workshop. It is really good too, if y'all look around to see the diversity, hold on for a second because we're gonna let Mr. Frierson come in and sit down. I always, just so y'all know, anytime I can call him out, because he's on the radio, if y'all don't know that, anytime I can get a lick in too, I try and get it, is that? I was gonna leave you alone. Sorry. But I'm also really glad to see a diverse group of folks out here, and you're representing both landlords and tenants. So quick question, let me raise your hand if you are a landlord, okay? And then raise your hand if you are a tenant. I like it, and I like, y'all see the numbers, I'm really happy about the attendance. Our purpose here today is to ensure that we set a standard here in Columbia for healthy, safe, and stable rental housing. That's all we want. And I will tell you about this event is personally very significant to me because I was a renter for quite a while, but I also was in public housing, I also was on section eight. I can tell you all that I never had any problems with my landlords. And guess why? Because I was in law school and getting my MBA. Do you see what I'm saying? But you also, I'm sure know that most of my neighbors and my friends were not in law school getting an MBA. And I could see the difference in the conversations and how issues were resolved. And so it's just always been important to me to make sure everyone is treated fairly and that we can communicate and talk the same language. Today will be a very good opportunity for us to come together, share knowledge, engage in meaningful discussions that can contribute to building positive relationships between tenants and landlords, whether you're a tenant seeking comfortable and secure living space and having problems, or if you're a landlord having difficulties, maybe providing, communicating with your tenants and establishing the rules and standards. Your presence here underscores at least to us that you are serious about the issue. Tonight we wanna discuss also the legal and ethical responsibilities cause you know I came in knowing them back in the day. Or I made them up and sound very convincing, but I just never had any of those problems. But other people do, so we really wanna look at legal and then ethical responsibilities that come with the roles of being both landlords and tenants because in this relationship, landlords have responsibilities and tenants have responsibilities. The workshop also aims to give you various insight, resources and tools to navigate the relationship successfully. You will hear from experts, some of these up here, in the field and I really encourage you to ask your questions. I really encourage you to share your experiences. It is the only way that we can, and we want it from both sides, but it's the only way that we too can do better at addressing any of the issues that we think are going on in Columbia. And if there is any way that we can help, there may not be, but how do we know if we don't know what the issues are? Is that fair? All right, I will say too that I wanted to recognize and commend our mayor. Dan, you recommend. This is his brain child along with Reverend McDowell. He's out, both of them are out and so they allowed me to come. And I actually am over the Affordable Housing Task Force so I could not resist the invite. The last thing I will say is I do have some family things going on so I will not be able to stay the whole time, but it doesn't mean that it's not important to me. And is it okay for me to give a shout out to Willa Run? Is that Willa Run back there? So, no, so I have to say this. Willa Run is my first address. My parents' renters in the 19- some, some, some, some, some, some. And so that neighborhood is, which is still walking distance for me, is quite special to me. So thank you for being here. Felicia, did I check all the boxes that you have for me? All right, welcome y'all. Y'all have a good time. Thank you so much, Tina. Always doing wonderful job. I want to call all the individuals we have listed on the panel this evening. Christine Foy, are you wanting to sit up here? Ms. Foy is the field office director for the Department of HUD. Do we also have Zach Wooder? Zach, would you like to come up and sit up here? So Mr. Wooder is the portfolio management specialist, also with the Department of HUD. And Jennifer Modro, Moro, Jennifer Morro. Jennifer, you want to come up? Do I have enough room? I don't think so. Okay, well Jennifer, we'll call you up as soon as we're ready for you. I apologize for that. So I'm going to step aside and turn things over to Ms. Foy, Ms. Christine Foy. As you said, I am Christine Foy. I'm the field office director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development here in the Columbia office. We cover all of South Carolina. Before we start, I know I have to get through some thank yous too. So I want to thank City Councilor Herbert for being here. It was nice to meet her for the first time today. So nice to meet you. Felicia Kilgore and Charmaine Clark with the City's Community Development Department who put this on for us today. So thank you. The HUD field policy and management team, Debbie Duesenberry and Alexis Hum. And I want to thank all of the speakers tonight in the interest of time. I won't read their names, but I do want to thank them for giving up their evening to give out some very good information to us tonight. They're all experts in their fields and we're lucky to have them tonight. So thank you to all the speakers. And although they're not here tonight, I do want to acknowledge also Mayor Rickinman and city manager Teresa Wilson. We worked with them last year on some serious issues and a HUD funded development here in Columbia. And it was then that we realized that not everybody knows how to raise issues when they are facing issues or they have serious complaints. Not everybody knows how to raise those. So we decided to work on this with the city. So I did want to just acknowledge them even though they are not here. So just to take a step back, why are we here? Everyone deserves to live in a safe, well-maintained housing that is affordable. And at HUD, we are specially dedicated to ensuring renters that live in HUD subsidized housing stay informed of their rights and can access quality affordable housing. Tenants of HUD assisted housing should know that we work closely with state and local government as well as nonprofit organizations to ensure tenants receive the protections to which they are entitled. And landlords also have rights as well. So I'm glad to see that there are so many landlords here tonight as well. The HUD tenant rights brochure, which is right here, it's on our table out there and there is an online link to it on our website. And we do have a speaker here who will walk us through the brochure, but I did just want to point it out. So it really outlines what is expected from both the tenant in HUD subsidized housing and the landlord to ensure mutually benefit arrangement. So again, not everybody is aware of their rights and responsibilities and this is why we are here today. We want you to know where to find help when you need it. So we hope the information you get is helpful. And again, we thank our local partners and we look forward to getting some information too. So thank you. Good evening. Can everybody hear me okay? My name is Zachariah Woodard. I am a portfolio management specialist at the HUD Columbia office. And I'm gonna be talking about reporting issues in public housing and then the tenant based housing choice voucher program. Also known as sectioning. So what are some HUD and housing authority roles? So with HUD, it's to provide funding to the PHAs, provide technical support to the PHAs. So if they have any issues with program management or any questions, they'll come to us and we can help answer those. And then also to ensure PHAs are following the rules and regulations. We will go out on site and do compliance audits at the various housing authorities to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. And then for housing authorities, they are to manage the day to day operations. This can include maintaining waiting lists and applications, verifying income, assets, help determine rent in the rental portion and then also make payments to landlords as part of the voucher program. And that's just a short list. Housing authorities do a lot. Helpful tips. So you'll want to submit requests in writing. This can be email, a letter. Many times they'll accept text messages as well, but we just wanna make sure that we're having a good record keeping process. And then follow up phone or in-person conversations in writing that outlines your understanding. So if you have a phone call about a work order, say that's coming up on January 25th, you can follow that up with an email just to confirm that with the BHA. And this helps, again, about your record keeping. So if there's any future issues. And then review your lease for house or community rules. This tells you what you can or cannot do. And then also it outlines what your landlord or property manager is required to do. And if you're unclear, ask questions and I'm sure they can help clarify any items. And then keep communication open with your landlord. We want this to be a respectful two-way communication between you and your landlord or property manager. So public housing residents, this is a flow of communication. So it starts with the resident and then talk to your property manager, work with them to try to find a solution. And if you can't find a solution with them, move on to your PHA supervisor. This could be a regional manager, a director or depending on the size of your housing authority. It could be the executive director. And then the next step is HUD. And then if you are a housing choice doctor participant, you'll discuss with your landlord first, try to work with them on any issues. And then you could talk to the PHA after that. If it's a maintenance issue, they can send out an inspector to look at the items. And then from there, you can discuss with HUD as well. And then for landlords, your first stop is with the PHA. Discuss with them any issues you're having. And hopefully you can find a solution. And then you can from there discuss with HUD as well. And then this last slide is my contact information, has my phone and email. And then for those in the room, I have all this information on a flyer out in the hallway as well. So you can pick that up and call or email me anytime. All right, thank you. And now we move on to multifamily. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jennifer Morrow and I'm the management and occupancy review manager for South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority. Our office is contracted with HUD to assist tenants with issues with their apartments, with recertification and owner agents for project-based rental assistance, HUD section eight properties throughout South Carolina. If you have an issue that you've reported to your rental office that hasn't been addressed in a timely manner, then our support team is here to help you. To reach out to our support staff, you can reach Ms. Mary Watson by telephone at 803-896-9007 or 1-800-236-3944. We do have brochures that are available outside to your left on the HUD table that also has that information. When you do call in, if Ms. Watson is not available, please leave a message and she or one of our other support staffs will reach out to you to help you rectify your situation. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Clarence Portamon. I'm from the Jacksonville HUD field office and in my office, we cover the entire state of South Carolina. And tonight, I'm gonna be talking to you about tenants' rights and responsibilities. HUD assisted properties as a part of the dedication to maintain the best possible living environment for all residents. Your local HUD office encourages and support the following, property management agents and property owners communicate with residents in any relevant issues. Property management and property owners giving prompt consideration to all valid resident complaint, resolving them as quickly as possible. Right to through file complaints with management owners, government agencies without retaliation, harassment or intimidation. Your right to organize and participate in certain decisions regarding the well-being of the property. Your right to appeal to decisions made by HUD local office. And you can appeal it to the Office of Asset Management and Portfolio Oversight at HUD headquarters. Along with the only amendment, you played an important role in making your apartment grounds and other common areas a better place to live. As a tenant, you have the right to live in a decent, safe and sanitary housing that is free from deteriorating paint and environment hazards. You have the right to receive lead disclosure from disclosing the landlord knowledge in lead-based paint for lead-based paint hazards. You have the right to get repairs performed in a timely manner upon your request. You have the right to be given reasonable notice in writing or any non-emergency inspections or other entry into your apartment. You have the right to protection from eviction except for specific causes stated in your lease. You have the right to request your rent to be recalculated if your income decrease. You have the right to access your tenant files. To continue with your rights, you have the right to organize as residents without obstructions. You have the right to provide leaflets and postmaterials in common areas. You have the right to be recognized by property owner management companies as having a voice in the residential community affairs. You have the right to use appropriate common spaces for meetings to facilitate your organizations. You have the right to meet without representation of employees of the owner's less management company being present. You also have the right under the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and other civil rights laws to eco and fair treatment in the use of your building services and facilities without regards to race, color, religion, sex, disability, family status, or national ordinance. Residents with disabilities also reserve the right to reasonable accommodations. In addition, residents have the right on the HUD Equal Access Rule to equal access to HUD programs without regards to a personal actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or marriage status. Now, your responsibilities as a tenant. Your responsibility is to comply with the rules and guidelines that governs your lease. You're responsible paying the correct amount of rent on time each month. You're responsible providing accurate information to the owner management agent company as certification or recertification interviews. You're responsible reporting change in the family income or composition of the family in a timely manner. You're responsible for conducting yourself in a manner that will not disrupt, disturb your neighbor. You're responsible for not engaging in criminal activities in your apartment, common areas, or grounds. You're responsible for keeping your apartment reasonably clean. You're responsible for disposing of garbage and waste in the proper manner. You're responsible for maintaining your apartment and common areas in the same general physical condition as when you first moved in. You're responsible for reporting any apparent environmental hazards to the management company as soon as possible. You're right. You have a right to be involved in decision-affecting your home. As a resident hood assistant most of our family housing, you play an important role in decisions that affect your community. Different hood programs provide specific residence rights. You have a right to know under which hood program your building is assisted. To find out if your apartment building is covered under any of the applicable programs, contact the management company, or they should be provided in the brochure in the back, I believe, from the handout outside. That was building enhancement. As a tenant, you also are eligible for what's called enhanced vouchers. This is with the apartment that you're currently living as an assisted property-based Section 8 country that is getting ready to end. And if the owner decides not to renew, the owner is required by law to notify you in writing of that decision at least one year before the contract expires. Under these circumstances, you may be eligible for what we call an enhanced voucher. Under the enhanced voucher, if you decide to remain in a property using an EV, a higher payment standard will be used to determine the amount of Section 8 assistance. Under the EV, you are also eligible for, and you can actually choose to move out of the property and use the voucher to rent an apartment anywhere else in the United States, where the owner will accept the voucher, and the rents are allowable in the allowable range subject to approval. For additional assistance for tenant and the tenant rights and responsibility, you also find these numbers located in the brochure. But you have the HUD, National Multi-Film and Housing Clearing House. You have HUD Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. You have HUD Office of Inspector General Hotline. You have the HUD Housing Counseling Service Locator. You have the HUD EPA National Lead Information Center. Your local government, tenant, Landlord Affairs Office, Legal Services Office, tenant organizations to obtain information on additional rights under the local and state laws. And just some more additional assistance if you need it. The number here is for HICFA, Office of Asset Management Portfolio Oversight in Washington, DC. We have a phone number there as well. And for the deaf or the hearing impaired, we also have the teletype in the TTY line, and there's a number that's provided for that as well. Next, how to file a complaint? You file the complaint, you first start with the property manager or the site manager, and if the complaint is not resolved within 72 hours, there in the brochure, you're gonna find the list and you're gonna determine whether your apartment is HUD assisted or contract administrative assisted. And at that time, you, based on the number, you will contact the right, you will call the right number. But if it's HUD assisted, you would use this jacks.incoming at HUD.gov. That's in my office. So anytime it doesn't happen and you need to escalate it to the next level, that email is a pretty good way to get some like a quick response. So if you want to do that. And you can pick up a hard, competent, multi-film the housing property listing also in the handout in the back. And I think that concludes it for me. Thank you very much. Good evening. My name is David Hatcher. I am the director of code enforcement for the city of Columbia. Today, I'll go over the code enforcement division's involvement with rentals and how, and what we feel are the responsibilities and landlords from our point of view. The code enforcement division is part of the police department in the city. We were merged with CPD back in 2014 at the direction of the city manager. We ultimately report to the police chief, Skip Holbrook. We generally enforce anything you could think of that has to do with maintaining your property. And that could be anything from overgrown yards, trash and debris, abandoned air like vehicles to substandard structures and unsafe living conditions. Many of these violations are found in your international property maintenance code and the city codes and nuisance ordinances. We also enforce the city's vacant building ordinances and the rental ordinances for both long-term and short-term rentals. In code enforcement, we have 21 inspectors assigned to various police regions in the city and they're assigned to specific territories within those regions. And some are assigned specialized tasks such as rental enforcement. Lastly, we have a work crew that we have designated to abate violations in the city where we can't get the owner to abate them. We have people that can do that. So the city of Columbia has a rental ordinance for those that don't know that was passed in 2016 that requires all landlords to register each rental unit with our office. To date, we have about 27,000 registered rentals throughout the city of Columbia. During the registration process, the landlord must certify that each of the rental units meet minimal code. There's a checklist that's provided with the application to give them an idea what that is. At a minimum, among other things, units must have working heat, water, and electricity. They must have smoke detectors and a fire extinguisher. The units and premises must be sanitary and free from trash and debris and the structure, interior and exterior must be free from any defects or life safety issues. The unit must be free from bugs and pests. The ordinance also establishes a point system. The point system assesses fines against the rental permit for violations in any city ordinances. These violations include everything from the violations of city property maintenance codes to criminal activities and behavior of the tenants. If the permit receives 15 or more points, the rental permit can be revoked and the landlord can lose privilege to rent that unit. The landlord is ultimately responsible for everything to do with the property to include the general maintenance and upkeep of the property to include the behavior of the tenants. Tenants also bear some responsibility on maintaining the property. While the landlord is generally responsible for the structure itself, the tenant is generally responsible to keep the structure and the premise clean and sanitary. Depending on the lease agreement, tenants are also responsible to maintain the yard and ensure the grass is cut. Some other common issues that we see a lot on rental properties caused by the tenants are parking in the front yard in the grass, rollcars being left out, overfilled or left out before collection or after collection, litter and trash in the yard, abandoned air like vehicles, and loud parties, get a lot of those. If there are problems with the structures or premise, the tenant needs to notify the landlord so they can have an opportunity to fix those issues. They also need to allow the landlord with proper notice to come inside and fix any violations. It's probably some of the people we get that don't let their landlord have to fix the violations. I would also suggest that the tenant become familiar with the landlord and tenant act of South Carolina to know what their rights are, and it also provides procedures what they need to do to notify their landlords. We are also available to inspect your property if you're not sure of the violations, we're happy to come out and do an inspection and we'll do that request of the tenant or the landlord. The most important thing a tenant can do is be a good neighbor. The way you maintain your property can have a negative or positive impact on your community. Don't draw attention to yourself and this also goes for behavior. The landlord can be assessed points and fines for failure to maintain the property and your behavior. Always remember that although the landlord is ultimately responsible for everything to do with the property and the behavior of the tenants, the fines are often passed down to the tenant and sometimes the landlord can initiate eviction for bad behavior or criminal activities at the property. If you ever have any questions or need to contact us, we can be reached at our general phone number 803-545-3430. From there you'll get a Cushill Service Representative and they could put you in touch with an inspector or anybody else on staff that may be able to help you with your issue. Or if you need to get an inspection of your property, we can do that from there too. We're also available online at columbiapd.net forward slash code dash enforcement where you can visit us in person at our new location at 928 Hemlock Drive right off Blood Road near the USC Stadium. Our office hours are 830-5, Monday through Friday. That's all I got. We're coming here tonight to take time to learn about this important issue. My name is Samuel Kramer. I'm a staff attorney with South Carolina Legal Services. We're a statewide nonprofit law firm. We serve low income South Carolina residents. We do not represent landlords. We only represent tenants. So, next slide please. Who are we? What do we do? This is our eligibility for assistance. We means test when you come in to apply for our assistance. We do a variety of cases. The time you see my slide, the time you see the next slide, I'm gonna make sure everybody here can hear me and see what's going on. So, cases we have consumed for finance, education, elder law employment, housing, income, maintenance, public benefits, migrant text. We have offices all over the state. We have a toll free number to call. So, what I'm gonna talk about tonight briefly, I want you to remember a couple of things. Evictions would be between a private landlord and tenant and also public housing. Let me talk about common issues, because I'm in court a couple of days a week where I'm talking to people on the phone every day who say I'm behind in my rent. I can't pay my rent. Withholding rent, not keeping up the property. No legal defense in South Carolina. The Magistrate Court. It's unfortunate, it's very Napoleon, it's very stringent. So, when I tell people if you want a jury trial in Magistrate Court, you should request it in writing. You don't get a jury trial, you don't respond to the court, you're gonna get evicted. Richland County required mediation before we go to trial, a jury trial in this county. In only six people on a Magistrate jury, not 12. What did they decide when you go or you stay? So, impact of an eviction filing. Does anybody know how long that eviction filing saved on your record? No. Well. That's the right answer, on your record and on your housing report. And then work around with you the rest of your life. So what do I tell people to do? When they resolve their case in Magistrate Court, get a copy of the court order showing the cases, settle or dismiss, not dispose. You're gonna need that to go and apply for a housing loan, a student loan, you're gonna buy a car or a house. Well, you have eviction filing, we can't give you a loan. Yes, if I had a court order, I'd show you my cases settled or dismissed. Now, landlord retaliation for filing. Let's talk about that just briefly. And as Mr. Hatcher, my colleague said there's a whole section, I'm not gonna go into the law. The Greek and South Carolina landlord, the Tenet Act is pretty specific. But let's say you have a tenant and they're complaining. My heat doesn't work, my water doesn't work. Fix it, I'm gonna withhold rent. Not in this state. Oh, not in this state. So what I wanna talk about is there's a whole section of that law that deals with retaliation. If you're a landlord and you're gonna retaliate, then essentially it's gonna bite you, okay? It'll bite you. My tenant is making too many repair requests. So I'm gonna just go ahead and evict you. Yes. I'm gonna go back and talk a little bit louder so you can hear me back here. So, if anybody's had an exception so far, because I know you've seen a lot of slides, a lot of details, I want you to remember a few things. One of them is don't get evicted. Or don't get that eviction file on your record because it's gonna stay with you. Next slide, please. Okay, this is kind of small, but it says, how do I manage an eviction? Don't get one filed against you. Respond to the magistrate court. You gotta, if that court contacts you, you've gotta come back to the writing. Don't come to me, your attorney, go to the court. Six person jury of magistrate court, bench trial, mediation, document all actions with the landlord in writing. And people call me, well, we're not doing this, they're not fixing this, take pictures, take video. Show me what's there. Response, I'm behind in my rent, I can't pay my rent, I lost my job, someone died, they moved to Washington DC, I'm behind in my rent. Negotiate, make a deal with the landlord. Don't pay additional rent unless the landlord agrees in writing first to settle or dismiss that eviction filing against you in court. If you decide to move out while the eviction is pending, which is always an option, you gotta let them know and write it. Tell the landlord I move it out. They're gonna do an inspection, I'm gonna document it, gonna put the keys in the landlord's hands or the mail back certified mail to turn receipt, not gonna throw them in a key box, and I'm not gonna throw them in normal mail. Give the landlord your forwarding address, even his post office box, and then writing and request your security deposit act. Notify the magistrate court in person, you've moved out, let that court know your documents. Here's a document of my move out, I videotape that, I put the keys in the landlord's hands or the mail, the certified mail back, for the bank to talk about request the magistrate court mark your cases, settled or dismissed, request to copy the court order because you're gonna need it with that eviction file. I mean, don't get multiple eviction files, public housing report, for a long time. It's not like a bank. Had a guy ask me, well, it comes off like a bankrupt, see, after seven years, no, it doesn't. So, thank you. Okay, my name is Creamer, not Frierson, so that's all right, I'm here, he's my brother anyway, we'll go from there. Okay, next slide please. So, public housing and evictions. One thing that was covered earlier today is, if you have a voucher, HUD voucher, you get evicted, you might lose that voucher, that's gonna hurt. Why can I be evicted? There's a whole list of things, you can be evicted in public housing, fair to pay rent, fair to report income, fair to report who lives in the unit, drug related activity by you, your family, or a guest, environment and criminal, alcohol. You can read these. Okay, next slide please. Notice from the Housing Authority, okay, at least termination, when is it in? Why are you being terminated? Look at the documents that the Housing Authority will use for eviction, right to agreements hearing. Why can I have a hearing or why is my right not being given to me, next slide please. So, the first step is to have an informal hearing, this is in public housing, been 10 days of notice. I want an informal hearing. The Housing Authority is gonna tell you why your lease is being terminated, your side of the story, right to have someone speak for you, that could be me, you can represent yourself. Housing Authority notifies you in writing of the decision and tells you this is why you're either gonna stay or you're gonna go. Requests a formal hearing if the informal hearing goes against you, next slide please. So, there's a hearing officer. Before the hearing, you have to see those documents. If you don't see the documents, you can say, hey, I didn't see those documents, I don't want them used. Can't be used, you have a right to an attorney like me to represent you or you can represent yourself. Why is the lease should not be terminated? Right to ask the Housing Authority questions. Written decision by the hearing officer, an explanation will be sent to you. Next slide please. Lease termination, what happens if the Housing Authority wants to evict you? They gotta go to the Magistert Court. We briefly covered the Magistert Court in South Carolina. So, last the Magistert Court to evict you, you get a notice to vacate. You must be personally served with that rule to vacate or show cause. The Magistert Court can mail you a copy, they tried to personally serve you and you didn't get it, next slide please. Rule to vacate or show cause, call an attorney or South Carolina Legal Services, you got 10 days when you receive it to contact the court. Here, I already talked about this briefly. Jury trial, only a bench trial, you gotta request that jury trial in writing. Court evicts you, you have five days to request a new hearing, 30 days to appeal the Magistert Court's decision. Who am I gonna appeal to? Civil Court. South Carolina Court of Common Pleas, which is in Richland County on Main Street, for example, Lexington has one, we all do. Court issues are rid of ejectment, you have to leave within 24 hours of being served. If you don't leave, law enforcement will show up with low level force and your things will be moved down. Regretful. You can appeal the decision, the eviction decision to the Circuit Court and continue to pay rent during the appeal. You will not be evicted until the appeal is heard by the Circuit Court. One thing I wanna specify though is when you request that jury trial in Magistert Court, court's gonna hold a bond hearing. You're gonna say, my rent is five hundred a month. Court's gonna say you're gonna pay that rent. If you don't pay the rent, or you're late in paying the rent, the court will issue the writ of ejectment out the bill. So, there's a bond hearing that sets that rent until you have your jury trial. So, next slide please. Questions, this is our organizational website where you can get file 24-7 to contact us to submit a request to represent you 24-7 online or we have an intake number, next slide please. So, our intake line, this is where you can call our intake line. We submit an intake through our good paralegals that are there, let's see Monday through Thursday from nine a.m. to six p.m. So, I've really kind of covered things pretty quickly on evictions. So, what I want you to remember, A is don't get evicted, and I want you to remember if you do get that eviction filing, it stays on your record, it won't come off. So, you have to have that court order to explain it when you apply for a loan down the road. I know we're gonna have a question and answer session after this, so I'll be available to answer questions. We also have our table outside, South Carolina Loop Services with brochures. If you have any questions, thank you. Hi, how's everybody? I'm Don Frierson, Human Affairs Commission, and before I get started, I want to acknowledge my coworkers in the back, Robert, Alyssa, Laura. So, I want to give them credit for being on here now. What happened on August 4th, 1968? We just celebrated somebody's birthday. What happened on August 4th, 1968? I just want to find out where my history buffs are. April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated. Memphis, Tennessee. As a result of his assassination, and as a result of the work that his brother did, AD King, the United States House of Representatives and Congress, United States Congress, I should say, passed what is known as the First Fair Housing Act. It was in 1968. First Fair Housing Act included race, sex, religion, roommate status, national origin, and color. It was later amended to include disability and roommate status. So, who does the Fair Housing Law protect? Oh, we got some smart people in here. You want to come up here and finish this? He's right. It's everybody. Everybody here is a particular race, sex, religion. Some of us don't have disabilities, but who knows what will happen in the future. Some of us don't have children, but we have nieces and nephews. There are some of us who are of a particular national origin. And basically, color means, that was the thing in the African-American community, you know, if you were light, dark, that kind of thing. That is what it's meant as color. Now, you just heard the presentation of Land Law Attentive and Fair Housing. Everybody knows what the difference is. See, I'm very participatory. Anybody knows what the difference is between Fair Housing and Land Law Attentive? No, I'm not going to tell you. No, I'm not, seriously, I'm going to tell you. He just gave a list of things that you could be evicted for, right? Not paying your rent, cat tan up your house, like mine tore up mine last night. Seriously, really, I'm getting rid of it. The dog attacked somebody, for whatever reason. You can go two ways with that if you have a complaint. There could be a Fair Housing complaint, it could be a Land Law Attentive complaint. The difference is, if it's a Fair Housing complaint, you're saying that you're being evicted because of your race, sex, religion, disability, or family status, national origin, color. In other words, you're being treated differently because you are a member of a protected class. I didn't pay my rent on time, I'm getting evicted. Well, she lives there, she didn't pay her rent on time, she's still there. So why are they evicted me and not evicted her? Because it'd be because she's a female, color. And so those are the differences. Now, the Fair Housing Act is very serious. Actually, you can, Land Laws can be taken to court and that's what we do, we take people to court. If we find out they have been discriminated against, we are quasi, what I wanna say, law enforcement agency. We can subpoena the evidence. We go out on the property. A lot of Land Laws don't like that. Why are you on my property? Because I got work to do. As the brother saw, I got work to do. We go out on the property and interview tenants. If you'll say, I can't think of the term, I forgot what it is. But if you're being treated differently and you allege that sexual harassment case, and we have those, the Land Laws and sexual harassing women and we get a case. We'll go out on the property and interview all the women as many as we can find. And depending on what they say, we'll take a very hard look at that. Because most of the time, if you have a situation like that, I have found, if it's one, there are others. There's always gonna be others. Discriminatory terms and conditions, that's the thing I'm looking for. So we will go out on the property and talk to the tenants to find out if the Land Law does this and if the Land Law does that. A lot of times, Land Laws get in trouble because, not because they're really discriminated against anybody, they get in trouble because of the way they treat somebody. And a lot of times, the tenants can make you treat them a certain way. I always tell the Land Laws, if you got a problem, you're mad at somebody, don't go to work that day because you're gonna say something and they're gonna thank you discriminated against. We got a complaint just two days ago where this lady, apparently she was complaining to the Land Laws about fixing up items in the house. Land Law says, well, I'ma send the maintenance man over. If you promise me you won't shoot him. The lady says, well, you know what? The lady who told me that it's white, the maintenance man is white, so she's messing with me because of our race. The law says, if you state a primary basic case, then we have to take it. Now, it might not be true. In a lot of cases, it's not true. In a lot of cases, it is true, but we have to take the complaint. And so in that particular instance, this lady filed a complaint against the Land Laws, which means that we have to go over and talk to the Land Laws and talk to all the tenants to find out how the Land Laws treat the tenants and that kind of thing. So the difference between Land Law Tenant Act and the Fair Housing Act is you were saying that you were being treated differently because of your member protected class. And it could be something as simple as this, true case. Somebody broke into a tenant's house. This tenant is a lady. This actually happened. The lady saw the maintenance man in the yard the next day apartment complex and said, look, somebody broke in my house, I stay here by myself. Can you put extra lock on my door? The maintenance man said, sure, no problem. Which I thought was a good thing, right? This lady, once she gets the lock on the door, she goes down the hall and brags to her friend who was Mayo that she had a lock, she got a lock put on her door. Mayo says, well, hey, I want to lock on my door too. He goes ask the manager, the manager says no. He files a complaint and he got a lock on his door, plus some money. Divide another lock if he wants to. I mean, it's just as simple as that. All it could be, as sad as this, most of the cases we get are cases involving just people with disabilities. And a lot of those cases are people with animals. Emotional support animals are service animals. An emotional support animal is an animal that you just have. I don't know why people will have cats as emotional support animals because they drive you crazy. Telling you, I got one. But an emotional support animal is just there to help you. Something you can lean on, jump up on you and things like that. Service animal does suffer like a C&I dog. This lady filed a complaint and said, she had to move because the landlord told her she couldn't have an animal in her house. And you see a lot of leases like this. Or the lease says no pets allowed under any conditions. Which is fine, except under the Fair Housing Act. An emotional support animal or a service animal is not a pet. It's like a person walking with a cane. That's what a service animal is. So we're gonna take questions after I finish. So he decides that he's going to put this lady out of her house because her daughter needed an emotional support animal. She explained to him, no, please, this is emotional support animal, she gave him. He put it out anyway. So she files a complaint. We go up to the latest house. This was another part of the state. We cover the entire state of South Carolina. So it's not any part of South Carolina that we hadn't been in. Get up to the latest house. Clear, the child has a disability. But what happened is because that lady had to move, she was living in a cul-de-sac. Because she had to move, she found a house that was like facing the highway. The girl was outside playing with her emotional support animal. For some reason, something attracted the dog. The run out in the highway and the dog got killed. True story. So by the time we got up there, she got another emotional support animal for a daughter. But she said her daughter, they just never clicked. It was really a sad story. And so we were gonna find cause in that case and he settled the case. And we had to train him, which we do train him. And I'll never forget, he was so mad. And I'm like, you know what? You don't have to come here. You know, we can go on back home and we'll see you in court. And he decided to stay there. So those are some examples of what we do. It's very rewarding work, but I will guarantee you on any given day, if I get 10 calls in my office, six of them are going to be landlord tenant. It's a big problem. People are being evicted because, and a lot of times it's maintenance. The landlord won't fix the house up. And they don't want to file a complaint, but I can't take a complaint unless they're allegedly being discriminated against. And I don't put words in people's mouths. So you have to literally tell me that. And a lot of times people have children who have disabilities and say if there's mole in the house and the landlord won't fix the house and the mole is causing the child, is aggravating the child's disability and they have a doctor's statement that says that, she can file a complaint because you stay at a house where you have a serious condition and the landlord's not doing anything about it. It's affecting my disability. The other thing we see is people, requesting reasonable accommodations because they're disabled, they need to go up, they need to be down on the floor. They need a bicycle or a motorcycle in their particular unit. And you have to reasonably accommodate people. I mean, you really do. The law requires that. Now the landlord, if you're a landlord and I come to you and say is, I need a first floor unit. And you look at me and say, you just get them off. You don't have no disability. You don't even look like a person with a disability. But I seriously, I do have a disability. And I can still file on the fifth floor of any apartment. The landlord can say, well, provide me medical documentation. I go to my doctor. My doctor says, Mr. Frierson has a disability and he needs to be on the first floor unit. That's all the doctor needs to say. He doesn't need to tell you about my disability. And you better not ask. I'm sitting, you cannot ask the person what his disability is, how long you had the disability, or show me that you have a disability, walk up these steps to prove it. That kind of thing. You can't do that. All you need is the letter from the doctor. Give you the letter. Well, I still don't believe you. Get out of my office. And you come file a complaint. We investigate the complaint. And the next thing you know, you wind up in court because you have discriminated against this individual. One of the things I always tell our property managers with your tenants, you wanna document, document, document. Person comes to your office and they say they have a problem, a maintenance issue. Take care of it. You know, just take care of it. Because if you don't, they're gonna call me or they're gonna call him. And a lot of times those are the main calls we get. I got this situation and my landlord won't address it. And because I went to him and asked him to do this, he's put me out, I got a call like that today. Later being put out of house with three children. And you know, you see a lot of that. But if you're the landlord, if you wanna stay out of trouble, document, document, document. She came to my office, requested this, such and such a date. I did this on such and such a date here to work on the show. And that's still not me, you're not gonna get a complaint file against you because you might. But if you get a complaint file against you, you have evidence. Because if it's a maintenance issue, we're gonna wanna look at the records, the maintenance records. Now we did have a lady one time which was kind of funny. She said the maintenance man, the apartment manager was putting her out because she would not. They would not fix her apartment when she called. We got the maintenance records. In a three year period, I think they had been over there and played this apartment 50 times. And we're asking the lady, what are you talking about? The record here, you've been over there 50 times. All the things you say he isn't doing, he's done. That is why you wanna keep records. Because if you didn't have any records, you know she's probably telling the truth. Because you have to prove that she's not telling the truth. You got to show the evidence. And then it's back in her court or his court, that he has to prove that what you said is not true. And it goes back and forth like that until we get enough evidence. Process is, the person wants to file a complaint. They have 180 days in South Carolina to file that complaint. If they miss out 180 day period, they have an additional 120 days or 300 days to file with HUD. It's supposed to take us 100 days to file a complaint. I mean to investigate a complaint, but sometimes it takes a little longer. Depending on the complexity of the case and whether or not the respondent wants to act right and give us the information, so we won't have to subpoena it. So there are all kinds of reasons why a case may go over 100 days. When you file a complaint, you don't have to provide any evidence upfront. Now, we're gonna ask you, well, why do you feel he's discriminating against you because he didn't fix your kitchen sink? Well, I got a neighbor next door and her kitchen sink was fixed, you sure? Well, I heard that, you know, we have to take it. But during the investigation, she's gonna have to prove that by either telling us who she was referring to who had their kitchen sink fixed, when was it fixed? She's gonna have to provide that information because what they say when you get in court? Okay, prove your case. So you got the prove your case. So that in a nutshell is what Fair Housing is all about. We have seen an exponential explosion of cases. Most of them are disabilities and most of those disability cases deal with emotions for animals. And I can understand, you know, Landlord thinking that if I let this dog in my house, he gonna tear the house up and all that. And, well, you got a pit bull. I don't care if it's the biggest rock wall you ever seen in your life. If it's an emotional support animal, a service animal, you got to let them have it. Now I'm scared of pit bulls. I really am, I have a phobia about pit bulls. And now I can't stand cats. But anyway, the law says that there are no brief restrictions on emotional support animals or service animals. And every service animal that I've ever seen and a lot of them have been pit bulls, they've always been nice. Of course, I didn't stay around them too long, you know, but they've always been nice. So that in a nutshell is what Fair Housing is about. And I'll be right there if you have any questions you wanna ask me later on. Hard to follow that. Well, my name is Regina Montgomery. I am the Regional Relocation Specialist with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. My role and responsibility is pretty much to work on URA matters for the department. And this is my contact information. So please don't hesitate to reach out to me and I'll explain what URA is. Next slide. And the URA stands for Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970. I know that's a mouthful, but essentially it's also known as the Uniform Act. The purpose of the Uniform Act is basically to establish minimum standards for federally funded programs and projects requiring the acquisition of real property or the displacement of persons from their homes, businesses, or farms. Essentially it applies to all projects except anticipating, excuse me, or receiving federal financial assistance involving one or three activities. It has to be an acquisition, rehab, or demolition. So in a nutshell, in order for URA to apply, federal funds have to be going into an acquisition, rehab, or demolition project. Next slide. So let's talk about tenant rights. If you are permanent, next slide. Okay, if you're permanently displaced from your home as a displaced person, you have the right to be notified in a timely manner when a project is proposed or selected. You are entitled to receive necessary advisory services to relocate successfully. You are entitled to be reimbursed for moving and related costs, and those costs are paid by the displacing agency. If you are a business that is required to be displaced or moved, then you are entitled to re, excuse me, you're entitled to re-establishment cost for you to be moved somewhere else. And next, you're also entitled to a replacement housing payment for at 42 months of assistance. If you're a tenant, if you wanna use that rental assistance to continue to rent, you can, or you can use that rental assistance payment and you can convert that to down payment assistance to put down on a home. And lastly, you have the right to appeal your eligibility for relocation assistance if you are denied or you can appeal the amount of the relocation payment that was offered to you. Next slide. Now, if you are temporarily relocated, you also have rights. All of the conditions of your temporary move must be reasonable. Also, the temporary unit must be suitable and found to be decent, safe, and sanitary. And lastly, if you incur any inner out-of-pocket expenses during the temporary move, all of those expenses can be repaid to you. And lastly, tenants must also be informed in advance of the rental assistance increases or you must be offered a different, if you must be informed, let me repeat that again, it says you must be informed in advance of any rent increases or an offer of a different unit in the property upon completion of a project. And if you're temporarily relocated, the temporary relocation must be less than 12 months. If it exceeds 12 months, the agency must offer you permanent relocation assistance. And in these slides, I also noted that if you wanna learn more about the URA, we have an online training curriculum called URA, The Hoodway. And I put the module numbers that you can learn if you wanna learn more about the specific requirements as it relates to temporary relocation or residential relocation. I listed the module number and then I'll go into a little bit more detail about what the URA, The Hoodway training curriculum is about. Next slide. Let's talk about tenant responsibilities. You must continue to pay your rent when you are temporarily relocated to avoid any type of evictions. You must stay in communication with the agency at all times. Don't move without being appropriately advised in writing. If you are temporarily relocated, you must report all housing conditions before moving without taking, excuse me, without talking to the agency. And if you wanna learn more about it, we have modules five and seven that goes over temporary relocation as well as residential relocation. Next slide. Let's talk about landlord responsibilities in the relocation process. And I also kinda threw in a little bit of acquisition in there because the URA also addressed acquisition standards that must be followed if you are, if the displacing agency is acquiring real property. Okay, so the responsibilities are if you are planning, you must plan and budget early. Staffing and other resources needed to undertake acquisition and relocation activities. You need to know who is going to be displaced, who is not going to be displaced, and who will be temporarily relocated. You are required to issue required notices in a timely manner, and you also must provide the necessary advisory services. So you need to plan and budget for whatever type of advisory services that you're gonna be providing the residents. This is not an option, it is required. You must also identify available suitable and comparable housing in advance of any relocation activities. And if you want to learn more, please go to module three to learn more about your responsibilities and the requirements under the Uniform Act. And also your project files, next slide. Your project files must be documented in sufficient detail to demonstrate compliance. That also includes your acquisition files need to be in sufficient detail. And also your information about the occupancy of the property and needs to be sufficient in detail to show HUD that you've complied with the Uniform Act. You must also track your tenants during the temporary relocation process. And you can only evict someone for serious lease violations and not because they failed to want to move or cooperate with the move. And I know that is one that always come up with me. Landlords want to evict tenants because they're not cooperating with the move. Or there's a process that you have to kind of work with the tenants, but you cannot evict them unless it's a serious violation. You also need to know, I kind of threw in some acquisition before you taking on any type of acquisition projects, you need to know what acquisition path that you're gonna be taking. Is that path gonna be voluntary or involuntary? And most importantly, there should be no coercive actions used to get an owner to accept a price that he or she considers unacceptable. And if you wanna learn more about acquisitions or relocation, please see module four and five in the URA The Hoodway. Next slide. I know I've been mentioning URA The Hoodway. This is a free online course that we have. I strongly recommend that you take it if you wanna learn more about the URA. It's very detailed. You can set it at your own pace. You get to take a nice quiz at the end of each session. And of course, you can always reach out to me. If you have any questions, if you think you're gonna be impacted by a federally funded project or you may be impacted by a federally funded project, I just want you to be aware of your rights and protections. If you're gonna be required to move. And I think that wraps up my presentation. That's it, thank you. And that's a formal program. I'd like to call all the speakers back up, please, to sit up here because we're gonna do a Q&A session now. So if all the speakers could come back up. All right, so who has a question for URA purposes? Well, for any of them. Well, in fair housing, a timely manner would be 180 days from the date of discrimination. So like if you were discriminated against in housing on today, you would have 180 days from the day's date to file with us. That's a timely manner. And so far as it relates to the fair housing law in South Carolina, right now, I guess. If it's an emergency situation, I'll be in court filing an injunction against a landlord on why there's no heat in that particular mobile home, home, room, whatever it is. Especially when we're gonna have real low temperatures the next four or five days that you can all see by looking at the weather channel here. So number one, a timely manner is, is probably within several hours of a person saying, I have no heat versus I have partial heat. So that is a condition in which I could go to a magistrate court. I need an emergency hearing because there's no heat in this mobile home, this apartment, this home, this room. And judge, I need you to order this person to restore the heat or if you're not gonna restore the heat or they can't do it, then there's alternative ways that a landlord can be required to put a person up or forego some of the rent if that vital heat, water, plumbing, the toilet's not working, there's sewage all over. That's an emergency injunction. Yes, sir? Yes, ma'am. That could be, ma'am, in your lease. What I always tell people to do is take your lease and go through it, put a ruler on it, go through it line by line so you're familiar with it because most repair situations require a request in writing within 24 to 48 hours. That's general legal advice, not specific, but if it's an emergency situation, you can always represent yourself in a magistrate court. You don't have to necessarily come to us. We'll take the case, but we cover five counties, just our office alone in Columbia. So there's a lot of people right now being evicted. There's a wave of evictions across the state and across the entire country. So the biggest thing for landlords is to make the repairs in a timely manner. Everybody can look out and say, well, there's no heat, there's no water, the plumbing doesn't work. Do you wanna live that way as a landlord in your own home? Then why should your tenant not have the heating and the air conditioning, it's 110 degrees outside? My air conditioning's not working. Same situation, the magistrate court can be approached for an emergency hearing. Emergency injunction, I should say. You have to look at your own lease. If you're asking a specific legal question, I can't give you legal advice on a particular case. I can speak generically as far as what is in the lease, who's responsible for the utilities, what those utilities need for repair, timely manner. We all can look at, a judge can probably understand, can't speak to the magistrate court, but I always tell people to document things, document your repair requests in writing, take pictures of whatever is broken or not working. And the magistrate court, of course, likes to see pictures, videos, testimony of what is broken or what is wrong. But just because you say it and you can't prove it, you should have evidence when you come to court. Okay? And I'd like to add to that too. Yes, sir. If you're in the city of Columbia and you have that type of situation, you should certainly call the code enforcement office if you're not getting any resolution for your landlord. We can also get involved and make sure that they're doing what they need to do and answer your question. The space heaters are not, they're not illegal, but they can't be your primary source of heat. So if it's like an immediately temporary thing, so you don't need heat, we can work with you on that, but it can't be like a permanent solution. It just seems to be extremely temporary. Yes, sir. Let's say you pay your rent late and the late fees kick in on the 6th, but you just paid your rent on the 7th, but you didn't pay the late fees yet. Can you make any big change for that? That, how long were that? Unfortunately, unfortunately in South Carolina, there's no legal defense for not paying your rent or being late in rent. There's not a legal defense. That's the unfortunate part of it. Okay, so what I advise people to do is speak with the landlord. If you can negotiate with them, that's to your benefit, but if you're being late in your rent or you're not trying to make partial payments, the landlord doesn't have to agree to accept partial payments, doesn't have to agree to accept payments from outside agencies, other nonprofits to pay your rent. They don't have to accept those payments. So, before we're going to be. For example, not paying your rent in full, not paying it timely, being behind, there's no defense to that in this state. And I have to give that news to people every day because there's a different, I say there's a hardship argument, there's an economic argument, there's no legal defense. I can't go to court to defend somebody being behind in rent, unfortunately. Can't do it. This is one more thing, let's say you pay your rent but if you're being late in the same month you pay the late fees. That's something you would need to work out, I can't answer individual questions as far as you can always talk with your own landlord and go over your lease and ask to go and speak with them. And if you can't talk to the individual landlord, the property manager, the apartment complex, whoever owns that house, there's usually a way to communicate. I always advise people communicate in writing. Don't rely on phone calls, okay? Keep a copy, put whatever your question is in writing and submit it. Let me add a caveat to that. There is one circumstance where you actually can be late in paying your rent. If you have a disability and the source of your rent is a disability check and your disability check comes on the 15th of the month, that's your sole source of income. I wanna repeat, that's your sole source of income. Then you can request a reasonable accommodation to allow that, to ask that landlord to allow you to pay your rent when your disability check comes. And they would like have to do that. We've seen cases like that. But that's the only circumstance I know he's right. I mean, if you don't, that's the number one question we get a lot of, well, I'm gonna withhold my rent. No, ma'am, don't do that. I don't care what you, okay, fine, seriously. What you need to do is tell a landlord that you get a disability check. And your disability check comes on the 15th, that's your sole source of income. Now, if you get a disability check and you have another job out there that can cover your rent, then you need to pay your rent between the first and the fifth. But if it's your sole check that you receive and it comes on the 15th, then you should ask for a reasonable accommodation. Because you can't pay them on the first through the fifth because your money hasn't been, it's not there. And it's not there because you're disabled and you get a check on the 15th. So you can ask for a reasonable accommodation. And if you don't grant you one, just give us a call. Disability. If you have an emotional support animal, a service animal, you should let them know when you rent the unit. You don't have to let them know, well, you should let them know if you have it already. But sometimes people become disabled when they're in the, so you need to let them know when you get it. But they cannot charge you a pet deposit. Yeah, you can ask them if they have an emotional support animal. Because a lot of landlords, what they do is, if you have a support animal, they wanna see that you got the correct shots for the dog and that kind of thing. And the person with the emotional support animal service animal, they have to provide that. But they can't charge them a pet deposit. But yeah, you have every right to know that. It's on your property. Yeah, a lot of companies do that. They can request that you provide shot records. And if you don't provide shot records, that could, they could seek an eviction. Because they wanna make sure that if the animal bites somebody, you don't have rabies. Now if the animal bites somebody, you probably don't have to leave anyway, but. But they have a right to ask for shot records. They can do that. They're trying to get in such a way that it's gonna cost them multiple thousands of dollars to make them pay. What is the requirement? Do they have to watch it happen? No. And then they move timelines that are required by law. They give a tenant notice, as well as give a landlord the opportunity to save their property while they can, if that makes sense. I'll let him address it, but I can tell you what I've seen in fair housing. I have actually seen tenants who have torn up houses, literally. And you know, as a landlord, you don't have to let anybody tear up your house. I mean, if they're tearing up your house and you have proof that they're tearing up your house, one thing I would do is at least put them on notice that look, this is happening, you need to stop, blah blah blah. They continue it, then you can just go to the marriage office and he can tell me if I'm wrong and request an eviction. Now, if you are on a month-to-month lease, the only thing that is required is for the landlord to give you 30 days notice that he doesn't want you there anymore. You can give him 30 days notice that you're gonna leave. And it's nothing you can do about it. If I'm renting from him and he gives me a 30-day notice that I'm on a month-to-month lease, he says I'm not gonna renew your lease just out of the cold, but I'll let you. First let me say that if you're a landlord, make the repairs, make the repairs timely. Don't have me in the court representing a tenant for you not making repairs. Yes, ma'am, I understand what your question is, but if you are a landlord and you want to hire a lawyer, you should call the South Carolina Lawyer Referral Service and they will refer someone if you are a landlord to represent you, a real estate attorney or someone familiar with those kind of things because I primarily represent tenants. I don't represent landlords just so you understand that. I can tell you that I have seen cases and we've seen cases in Fair Housing where the landlord has moved to a victim tenant because they were tearing up the house. Now, of course, they'll have to prove it. And I've seen cases where that has actually happened and I've seen cases where it hadn't happened. So it's up to the landlord's discretion. And if you file, then all that can be settled in the Magistrate's Court. But I don't think, if that is the case, they're literally tearing up the house, then you have to do what you feel you have to do. I've seen leases like that. Her does that all the time. They used to anyway. Y'all don't do that anymore? They don't do that anymore. Her does not do that anymore, okay. And once they end up the vote, they get a half-pump and cover it up, staying at their kitchen. So my question starts out with people, how do you eradicate a life in which the landlord, in which the landlord, who got away, changes the property manager in the political weeks? How do you work that to get justice to a tenant who stays away on time, but yet if they're coming into the field or alone if they're against it? I'm gonna try to answer the best I can. I don't know that we've had a situation where the landlord's changing that often, but generally we need to have- Okay, well I'm not saying it is, I'm just saying I'm not familiar with any cases like that, but we certainly will, we're not mold experts, none of my staff are mold experts, but we just need to make sure it's documented. We gotta have evidence that there was mold, whether that's being, if you had a professional come and look and identify that it's mold and it's unsafe mold, we can't require that unless we see the mold. So if you have those information, those records, that's the kind of information we're gonna wanna see when we come to do an inspection. And if we have that information, or if you call us when the mold's still present, we can start a case and certainly go with that. But if it's already covered up, it doesn't only do us a whole lot of good because we can't prove that it was there, that makes any sense. So we gotta make sure we can document, document, document, document, and have evidence and anything you have supporting. If you have letters from your doctor saying you have a illness that's based on a certain kind of mold, all that information is helpful to us. And it's really a case by case situation. We'll certainly go out there and look at it, but again, we're not mold experts, so we need to make sure everything that you have with that is documented that we can have physical evidence to be able to bring a case to a landlord. As far as HUD, we don't, same thing, we're not mold experts, right? So if you feel like there's mold in your apartment, then HUD does, actually, we do inspections, react inspections, we do them annually. We do quarterly inspections from the management. They select the only inspection. Some management properties do inspections on units once a month, some do it once a quarter. It's all depends on the measure. But if it's determined and it has to be determined that it's mold, then that owner of that property has to certify that the mold has been mitigated. There's no longer there, then they seem at the HUD. What's your definition of certification? From a certified mold expert, not from me, because I'm not one. So that landlord, that owner of that property has to go out and find someone, a mold expert, to take care of the problem and the situation and provide HUD a certification that the mold have been removed. If you do right, y'all can't do that as well as this in case that landlord has a person to certify that for now. I'm just gonna, I'm a market maker, not a mold expert. Let me just say this, because we've seen a lot of this. And a matter of fact, we just took a case last week where a lady was complaining that her child has a disability and the department had mold and the mold was exacerbating her disability. The first thing you're gonna have to prove from a medical doctor is the fact that the mold is actually causing the disability. You got to prove that. And then we'll just go from there. But, I mean, we don't have a mold expert on our staff either. We have had cases like that where in some cases, the apartment complexes went out and gotten a mold certification, whatever. In the case I'm thinking about, they came back and said that there was no mold in the apartment. But the tenant steadily insisted that there was mold in the apartment. Obviously you know who we're gonna listen to. They've worked it and it's complete and it has not been fixed at all. The rest of you have to work with them on the apartment. I'll take, you know, a lot of times maintenance men and maintenance men for a lot of complexes are just hard to find. And so one of the things that we've encountered is that they operate on a schedule. So by the time that they get to your house, it may mean that that's the only time they can get to your house because there's so many other apartments that they have to take care of. And I always tell people if they come to your house, just make arrangements and let them go in and fix the place so, you know, you can get it done. But how you choose to handle that is up to you know, the HUD. So if there is a reason where whatever's going on in your house or unit where you have to be replaced, then that management company will replace you and relocate you while the work is being done. It will be at their cost. So you don't have to pay anything but you'll have to relocate. And once your apartment, your unit is back to it, back to being normal, then you can just move back into it. And for the emotional support animal, what about the emotional support animal? It was taken as the emotional support animal in the middle of their needs. Are they required to kill the landlord? Yep. Okay. The emotional support animal is called a damageer. It's taken as the landlord is dead. It's that person who reported it. Possibly, yeah. Well, first of all, most managers, just because you have an emotional support animal doesn't mean that that emotional support animal can just go out and bite people and tear up their apartment. If the, I mean, seriously, really, I mean, if the emotional support animal is tearing up the property, the manager should allow you to mitigate the circumstances, say, look, he's tearing up the property, you need to get him to stop. If the animal doesn't stop and he continues to tear up the property, then I would think, yeah, he could move to evict you. No? Be covered by you. I mean, the person who has the animal, yeah. Okay. That could have been similar to what you were talking about. I think someone stated here earlier, when you sign your lease, read your lease. Yeah. Yeah. And that would tell you pretty much because from where I sit, from where I see things, right? Communication at the lowest point as soon as possible, get rid of all of this. That's all it takes. I mean, even if you're one day, maybe you're one day late when you're in, maybe, but if you just communicate it, probably doesn't even matter. But as long as it comes to the consequences we think every month, right? But the bottom line is, and I see a lot of complaints, I have like, I cover, if you come with the whole state of South Carolina, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, I don't see complaints from everywhere. And it all starts with lack of communication. Get that first, all problems are solved. He's right. You can call me to 737-883-0 if you have any more questions. The lease has a provision that says, this is your notice, if you don't pay, this is your notice, it's the only notice you're gonna get. If you don't pay within five days of what it's due, this is the only notice you're gonna get. How does that affect that? Well, I think what you're asking is when a person is actually served with the eviction. And that's when that timeline starts, is are they served in person or is the notice put on their door? There's always an issue you can look at with service of process. And that's the most important thing is it was the person served properly. And there's cases where it was taped to the door and the door blew away, it blew off the door. So where are they served? Ask yourself that question. It's either placed in your hands, it's posted on the door, but that timeline begins because it's written right on the rule to show cause to vacate when that particular paper was served. And that's when that timeline will begin. When you go to court to file an eviction, that is when the person is served. That's why I try to tell people, don't get to the sit point where that eviction is filed because of the long lasting impact of it. And it is a long lasting impact, regretfully. So the thing to consider is, do I really need to get evicted or are from the other side, should I really file that eviction knowing the lifelong impact it's gonna do to this person and their family? Is there another way? This Richland County requires mediation before a trial. But it doesn't take off the eviction filing. Once the clerk pushes the button and it goes on there, it'll eventually show up on a credit report, it'll show up on a housing report. No matter if you move to another state, it stays. So that's the long-term impact to that. So the whole thing revolves around, look at the lease, see what the lease says. People use generic leases, I always tell people to go through your lease line by line. There was a question earlier about condition of the property. There's an inspection that occurs. You're moving in as a tenant, you can inspect and look at the property. And you can document things with the video pictures, same way with repairs. They're not being made, videos, still pictures, whatever, a witness, and you can look at those and take pictures. That's what you're looking at to show that repairs need to be made, they weren't made. So one of the things that we, that a problem is, is no, you can't withhold rent because repairs are not being made, but you can go into court for those specific repairs that aren't being made, and there's sanctions that the court can impose for those repairs not being made. That's up to the individual judge. Yeah, we're good people. I've got four bedroom house, four people. When they ever bring this up to me, can I come to you guys for help to support and testify? Is it multi-family? No, it's a people-family house. Because I cannot rent more than three people that are not here right now. That wouldn't be for me, it's that though, I don't think. It really wouldn't be for me, it's that. The city of KC, they're good $1,000 from me. I think that's some of the things you do about long-time parties and home leases, the point system, if you haven't been finding people, never know buying a land or if all is our tenant's problem, that could only be addressed by dual-activity of the law party, why they're enjoying their home lease, the only thing they have to do is they violate the victim. You're gonna come out to the fine every 10 days, and it takes 30 days. It needs to be, I think, better communication than you get 15 point system, and never being around the property again, keeping up affordable housing. I would say that we do send notices to whoever's on the application, so I mean, if you've got a situation where you didn't get a notice, certainly let me know that. But there is a remediation plan built into the ordinance, and in cases like what you just mentioned, that the tenant ran up a big bill, that you got a bunch of fines because of this tenant, and then you evicted the tenant. We actually, if you do a remediation plan, and part of that remediation plan is evicting the tenant, we will reverse those fines and those points if you can demonstrate that you filed with the magistrate, and obviously we'll work with you on that, but we need to contact us and let us know that, hey, I've started the eviction process, here's the paperwork. We know it's out of your hands at that point, it's up to the magistrate. We work with you. Yeah, we just want cooperation, if you tell us what your plan I'm doing, my office will always work with you, and if they're ever not, certainly contact me directly and let me know that. How much damage did it get, how's it been gone, and there's nothing you can do about it. Can you share it in there? We just want to find out if someone has evicted the tenant before we leave. I'll show you, we can not. Sound parallel to the court record stuff, tell me. Yeah, it's on the public records too. In your list, we have 30 of them. One more question, okay. No. Not unless you receive federal funds. If you receive federal funds, you're obligated on the 504C to do it, but if you're a private landlord, you have to allow them to do that. They have to pay for it, and if it's a modification, they have to restore the house back to where it was when they got it on the inside. So if they ask for a reasonable modification, like a ramp, a combination of stuff, you have to allow them to do it and pay for it, but it's not your responsibility to pay for it. I'm almost down to eight o'clock and certainly want to thank our panel. You guys have been wonderful. You've done an excellent job. The information that has been shared from the panel, from the attendees, the questions has been outstanding. I hope that the information that has been shared from both sides of the panel and what was shared to us has been informative to all of you. So we have prepared some comments of the PowerPoints on, I think the second row there. Yes, okay. And the panels that we have here, do you have business cards? Cause I've had several attendees ask for your cards. So if you can have those listed here at the corners of the table, it'd be great. We do have a few cookies in the back. Please, please feel free to help yourselves on your way out to take advantage of the refreshment that we have back there. And thank you. Thank you so much for joining us and y'all have a good evening.