Articles — legislation

As I mentioned in my last update, millions of dollars in rental assistance are still available. In Lexington, the Housing Stabilization Program has now opened the application process for tenants to receive a second round of funding. That means tenants who received HSP funding already are again eligible to receive additional assistance. The caveat is that the tenant may only receive a total of 15 months of funding.  So, if your tenant received 10 months of funding already, that tenant is now eligible to receive up to five months of additional funding. The same eligibility requirements are in place, and...

Greetings from a very icy Lexington, Kentucky. We’ve had some new developments that I wanted to update you about: (ANOTHER) NEW FAIR HOUSING EXECUTIVE ORDER  President Biden also signed an Executive Order asking federal government agencies to review laws that prohibit discrimination based on sex and to enforce those laws against discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.  In response, earlier today HUD issued a memo that they would be interpreting the Fair Housing Act as prohibiting housing discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity throughout the country. HUD and its state and local agencies will now be...

Update on Kentucky's Dog-Bite Legislation from Stephen Marshall on Vimeo.

“All the laws favor the tenants” is a phrase I hear often in the rental industry. As a Kentucky attorney who only represents landlords, I spend close to 150 days a year in court advocating for landlords, and many hours consulting and giving advice to landlords on how to structure their leases and applications, and how to deal with their tenants. While my practice is located near two jurisdictions that have adopted the URLTA (Lexington and Georgetown), I do plenty of work in surrounding counties that have not. As a result, I have had to develop expertise in landlord-tenant relationships...

As some of you might have noticed yesterday, the state House of Representatives passed House Bill 41, which addresses victims of domestic violence in rental housing, by a 90-3 vote. I wrote a blog post on HB 41 f few weeks ago, found here, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the bill from a landlord’s perspective. As those of you on my e-mail list know, I was able to meet with Representative Joni Jenkins, the sponsor of HB 41, and the bill’s advocates in order to discuss the concerns of landlords with the early version of the bill. Representative Jenkins...