Bed Bugs
IREM Position:
IREM believes that all housing should be safe, sanitary, and decent. IREM urges all property managers to comply with state and federal laws pertaining to bed bugs and treatment. IREM supports the funding of research to examine effective ways of mitigating bed bugs. If there is a presence of bed bugs, the resident must expeditiously inform the property manager so treatment can be performed. Residents have the responsibility to keep units sanitary and cooperate with treatment protocols and preparation.
(Adopted 10/23)
Medical Cannabis in Property Management
IREM Position:
IREM supports property managers staying up to date on the legality of the cultivation, use, and sale of cannabis in their jurisdiction. This enables them to address cannabis, through lease addendums, with which smoking and illegal drug use can be prohibited. Please refer to our Statement of Policy on Combating Drugs in Real Estate, Smoking in the Workplace and Residential Smoking, and our white paper on Cannabis Legalization Laws.
(Adopted 10/14. Updated 10/23)
Military Lease Clauses (Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of 2003)
IREM Position:
IREM supports fair and equitable handing of early lease termination requests for U.S. military personnel and reserves who are called to unexpected military deployment or active duty. The Institute encourages its members, to include special termination clauses for unexpected transfer or reassignment of military personnel that does not jeopardize a property's viability. We feel that a thirty day minimum written notice to vacate is a privilege that should be offered to military personnel. The request to vacate should be presented to the landlord with military documents which verify the assignment or transfer.
This privilege should only be exercised when the military personnel activated or transferred has met all the terms, covenants and conditions of his or her lease and is current on his or her payment of rent and other monies due the landlord. Under these circumstances, activated military personnel should be released from all further liability to the landlord. However, we do not feel that a mere offer of local on-base military housing is an adequate cause for the early release from a rental agreement.
(Adopted 2/91. Updated 4/06, 10/10, 3/16, 10/23)
Multifamily Housing Ownership
IREM Position:
IREM opposes all unreasonably restrictive requirements and moratoria regarding the conversion of rental housing units into condominium and cooperative forms of homeownership. We believe that the regulation of the condominium/cooperative form of ownership should be formulated at the state level where needs can best be determined and met.
(Adopted 6/86. Updated: 4/05, 10/09, 9/12, 9/14, 10/17, 10/23)
Occupancy Policies
IREM Position:
IREM supports Fair and Reasonable Occupancy Standards which can be found in Appendix II: Establishing Fair and Reasonable Occupancy Standards".
(Updated 10/07, 10/11, 04/16, 10/23)
Owner-Occupant Relations
IREM Position:
IREM supports Owners providing safe and decent housing for the needs of their rental occupants; rental occupants must recognize and accept their legal responsibility to maintain and care for the property and safety of their fellow occupants.
(Adopted 10/23)
Pets in Conventional Housing
IREM Position:
IREM opposes any legislation that requires owners or managers of rental property to allow pets in their units. Rental property owners and managers should retain their right to determine pet policies for each rental property on a property specific basis... IREM acknowledges the positive impact pets can have on an individual's life, however the safety of residents and the quiet enjoyment of their home may be compromised by the presence of pets under a variety of scenarios.
(Adopted 1/00. Updated 4/08, 10/11, 9/14, 10/23)
Reporting of Security Deposit Interest
IREM Position:
The Institute believes that the ten (10) dollar limit for reporting interest on security deposits with a 1099 form is unnecessarily burdensome and is discriminatory to real estate businesses. The Institute strongly recommends to Congress and the IRS that the minimum limit for reporting interest on security deposits be raised to $150 dollars.
(Adopted 6/91. Updated 11/05, 4/10, 10/16, 10/23)
Section 8 Tenant Protection in Property Foreclosure
IREM Position:
IREM supports requirements that banks and lending institutions be required to notify tenants of a pending foreclosure on the property. IREM would support that Housing Choice voucher tenants, if all rents are paid and current, and are in compliance within all other requirements of the lease; could remain in the property through the end of the lease, assuming the subsequent owner does NOT intend to use the property as a principal residence. IREM would oppose a requirement that subsequent owners of rental property be subject to a HAP contract (and the requirements attendant to that contract) without disclosure of such a contract prior to sale of the property to a subsequent owner.
(Adopted 7/09. Updated 1/14, 10/23)
Security Deposits
IREM Position:
The cost of administering the payment of interest earned on security deposits should be reimbursed to the managing agent to cover his or her overhead, required paperwork, and additional record keeping. Further, we feel that when the tenant is legally entitled to the interest earnings the interest should only be paid to those tenants who have been in occupancy for 12 months or more and complied with all lease requirements because of the small amount of interest that will be earned. This will hold true in all cases, except in those instances where the state laws make it possible for banking institutions to administer these funds, in lieu of the managing agent.
(Adopted 6/86. Updated 11/05, 4/10, 10/16, 10/23)
Tenant Improvements
IREM Position:
IREM is in support of legislation to decrease the length of depreciable lives for tenant improvements. IREM supports legislative language that would allow the remainder of tenant improvement costs to be written off upon the expiration of a lease, not over the depreciable life of a structure.
(Adopted: 4/03. Updated 10/08, 9/12, 10/17, 10/23)
Tenant Protection in Property Foreclosure
IREM Position:
IREM believes notification of tenants is important whenever displacement may occur. We would support requirements that banks, and lending institutions be required to notify tenants of a pending foreclosure on the property. IREM would support tenants, if all rents are paid and current, and are in compliance within all other requirements of the lease, could remain in the property through the end of the lease, assuming the subsequent owner does NOT intend to use the property as a principal residence.
(Adopted 7/09. Updated 1/14, 10/23)