REAL ESTATE

Question: Our new apartment manager is putting a lot of new rules in place. One is that tenants can’t put colored towels into the washing machine because they may stain the drum. The most disturbing rule is that any tenant with an infectious disease is not allowed to use the laundry room. We have received a 30-day written notice of the rules. Can they can be enforced?

Answer: As for putting colored towels in the washer, if you are on a fixed lease, the manager cannot change the terms of the tenancy until that lease expires. If you are on a month-to-month agreement, the manager can change terms with a 30-day notice.

However, there may be a fair-housing claim if the manager is not allowing any tenant with an infectious disease to use the laundry room. If the tenant’s disease rises to the level of a disability, a housing provider violates the fair-housing laws if it treats that tenant differently because of the disability, which includes HIV and AIDS.

For a disease to be treated as a disability, it must impair a major life activity. A person with a disability is entitled to a reasonable accommodation if necessary to allow the tenant to use and enjoy the facilities on the same basis as people who are not disabled. What accommodation is necessary and reasonable depends on the unique facts in each case and should result from the involvement of both tenant and landlord to find the specific solution.

However, a landlord can establish reasonable rules to guarantee cleanliness and the health of the tenants in general.

-- Martin Eichner,

Project Sentinel

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www.housing.org

Eichner is director of Housing Counseling Programs for the Sunnyvale, Calif., mediation service.