Articles — legislation

If you are a landlord in Lexington, I have bad news, and I mean very bad news. On October 10 at 1:00 p.m. Charlie Lanter, LFUCG’s Housing Commissioner, will be making a presentation about Source of Income Discrimination to the LFUCG Social Services & Public Safety Committee meeting. They already have a draft of an ordinance, and my guess is that they are looking to move this train down the tracks quickly.  Source of Income Discrimination?? What does that even mean? Well, there’s a technical legal answer to that question and there’s a practical answer. We’ll start with the technical...

The Kentucky General Assembly recently wrapped up its 2023 Legislative Session. There was no movement on most of the bills that would have been detrimental to rental owners, but one bill was passed into law that is concerning.  KRS 376.010 is known as the Mechanic's Lien Statute. You can read it here. It lays out the terms under which a contractor has the right to put a lien on real estate because he provided labor or materials to improve the property but was not paid for his work. Liens were available if the contractor provided the labor or materials under an agreement with...

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...

In 2018, Kentucky joined a growing list of states that have passed laws addressing fraudulent conduct by tenants and others attempting to get an Assistance Animal. KRS 383.085 makes it a criminal offense for any person to knowingly provide false information or documents in an attempt to get an Assistance Animal in housing. Check out this post to find out the details on Kentucky's version of the law.