Background Screening

City of Boulder Community Mediation Service sponsors Q&A for landlords and tenants affected by the flood The City of Boulder Community Mediation Program is hosting a Q&A session with local landlord –tenant attorneys on Thursday, Sept. 26 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in Council Chambers, 1777 Broadway. Attorneys will be on hand to answer flood-related questions and explain legal rights under the Colorado landlord tenant law including the warranty of habitability. The program is free and open to the public.  Flyer is attached. For more information, contact Community Mediation Service at 303-441-4364.

Sept. 15, 2013 - City, County to Provide Trash Receptacles for Flood Debris at Various Community Locations Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013 Media Contacts: 720-564-2935 (EOC Media Line) City, county to provide trash receptacles for flood debris at various community locations The City of Boulder and Boulder County have been working collaboratively to place trash receptacles ("roll-off" containers or Dumpsters) at various locations to collect flood-damaged debris. Delivery begins Sunday, Sept. 15 and will take two to three days. Initial locations are listed below. Residents are encouraged to use this resource for safe removal of spoiled food, damaged carpet, household materials and other flood-related debris. The trash receptacles will be emptied daily and will remain in place for a limited period of time, based on need. Materials that CANNOT be placed in the receptacles include: Electronics, such as computers, monitors and televisions. By state law these ca...

BARHA Members and residents of Boulder, BE CAREFUL with DRINKING WATER for now,  even if they say it is OK . There can be breaches and cracks in sewer pipes after flooding throughout urban areas, even if small, and certain waste-water plants in our area have been compromised, and when that happens, contaminated water can go anywhere, and follow any flow across flooded areas, parks,  on land or into any creeks, ditches, etc. and get into other water.  Be careful with faucet drinking/cooking water for now, even if they say it is okay. (You can fill 5 gal bottles at El Dorado or Indian Peaks...with El Dorado evacuation, might be easier to get to Indian Peaks on N Broadway across from YellowPine Rd or where N Bld Spruce Cafe is located....across Broadway from that...small funky little office on West side of Broadway, must go there first). Or whatever other way you can do to be safe. They recommend not using tap water for drinking, cooking, brushing te...

The Colorado Supreme Court recently ruled that owners and managers of limited liability companies (LLC) now have less exposure to personal liability and no fiduciary duty toward creditors should the company become insolvent. Limited liability companies are primarily governed by each state’s LLC Act and LLC operating agreement. It is in this way that courts across the nation are being asked to determine a standard for LLC accountability. This landmark ruling makes Colorado very attractive to potential owners and managers forming new LLCs and serves as a precedent for other states. The rental industry in Colorado could stand to benefit greatly because of this appealing reduction to personal liability. Existing property owners operating under LLC can now take a deep breath and new property owners will be drawn to the state for its lower risk investment potential. -H. Evans

In April, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its approach to employee background screening. Many anticipated that the EEOC would be implementing restrictions on the amount of information employers are allowed to monitor when hiring. Outright restrictions would have gone so far as to omit screening for a potential employee’s criminal history. Does an employer have the right to pry into their employees personal lives, in order to establish a pattern of high risk behavior? If a person has a history of theft or violence, do we in the rental community owe it to our residents and staff to be aware of these potential threats and prevent such activity to the best of our ability? Should the EEOC have moved forward with the restrictions, the safety of residents and staff in rental communities would have been greatly impacted. Instead, they recognized a company’s right to conduct consistent and unbiased, job-related background checks thereby ensuring a foundat...

It is the classic nightmare for rental property owners. You do everything possible to protect yourself and your investment from the unscrupulous renter…dutifully screen the applicant for any criminal history…any eviction history…you take a close look at their credit report…you call their references and verify employment and salary. Everything looks stellar, perfect and wonderful…until it isn’t. The worst has happened and you ask yourself: HOW did this person get past all of my efforts weed out high risk residents? The answer is simple…criminals are not above stealing. Identity theft paints these criminals as stellar residents gaining them access to your rental property. Avoid finding yourself mired in nightmare tenancy by following these three simple steps: 1.)     Obtain social security verification in all your screening reports 2.)     Check for valid photo identification on each applicant 3.)     Conduct regular inspecti...

Recently HUD issued a Final Ruling on disparate impact, which went into effect March 18, 2013. If you’re not sure what disparate impact is let’s start at the beginning... Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act-FHA in 1968 and revised it in 1988 "to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States ." The key provisions prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin in connection with residential real estate transactions. The courts have recognized two forms of discrimination. The first is Disparate Treatment. This is an intentional discriminatory act. The second is Disparate Impact. This is a practice that is seemingly neutral in its treatment of different groups but may result in one group of people being more harshly treated than another. HUD’s Final Ruling on disparate impact states that a practice is deemed to have a discriminatory effect “where it actually...