Understanding and Recognizing Common Fair Housing Violations

If you own property, whether it is residential or commercial, you may be looking to sell the property, or rent or lease it out. In doing so, you are likely to try to market or promote the property. But be careful, because even if you don’t intend to discriminate, it’s easier than you may think to end up with a Fair Housing lawsuit, alleging discriminatory housing practices.

Prohibited Marketing and Promotion Practices in General

You should never market or promote your property (even if promotion is just casual conversations between you and potential buyers or lessors, and doesn’t involve mass advertisements) in a way that could be seen as discriminatory. This seems obvious, but people can and do violate the law, without even being aware that they are doing so.

You should never promote or advertise or even comment on the demographic or ethnic features of either your property, or of the surrounding community. Even if the comment is intended to be positive—for example, telling potential lessors of a certain nationality that the surrounding community has a lot of people of the same nationality.

This applies to any protected class, be it race, religion, gender, or nationality, although you can legally promote the fact that property is in an age based community (for example, a 55+ community).

Disability Laws

Remember that fair housing laws also apply to disabilities. You cannot charge more for someone who is disabled to rent or lease property, than you charge other people, and you also cannot charge them more for providing them an accommodation that they may need.

As an example, someone who is disabled, and who must live close to the elevator, cannot be charged more for the unit near that elevator. Likewise for bona fide service animals—you cannot charge more for someone to live with a legal service animal, even if you otherwise charge extra to other residents for pets.

Blatant Discrimination

Many violations are obvious, and should go without saying, but they’re worth mentioning.

Never try to have tenants that are all the same gender, race, religion or other protected class—or to exclude any of them from leasing or buying property from you.

Many of these protections also extend to sexuality. It is illegal to prohibit same sex partners from either buying or leasing, or from using the common areas of the property, like recreational areas or pools or gyms,  the way that anybody else would.

Families With Children

It is also illegal to discriminate in any way, against people with young children. The only exception is if you meet all the legal requirements to be an actual 55+ community. If not, then you cannot discourage families with children from buying or leasing, nor can you prohibit children in any common areas (you can prohibit them from accessing areas unless they are with an adult).

Have legal questions about buying, selling or leasing your real estate property? Call the West Palm Beach real estate lawyers at The Law Offices of Larry E. Bray today for help.

Source:

hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/fair_housing_act_overview#:~:text=It%20is%20illegal%20discrimination%20to,Otherwise%20make%20housing%20unavailable