Fair Housing Compliance
Do Any of These Scenarios Sound Familiar?
- A Realtor® shows the parents of a blind toddler a house for sale at the end of a quiet cul de sac. A block away, on a busy corner, they notice another house for sale that meets their specifications and ask why he didn’t show them that one.
- A property manager shows a young, single woman a top-floor apartment when there is a first-floor unit available. A perfectly sincere concern for this woman’s safety may have led the manager to steer the tenant to the top-floor unit he perceives as safer.
- A customer asks where one of your listings is located. “It’s on Division Street,” you say, “across the street from a little bodega and a block away from Roberto Clemente High School.” The choice of the word “bodega” instead of the more generic store might been seen as a way to indicate that the many of the neighborhood’s residents were Hispanic.
Although well-intentioned, these common practices constitute steering. This effort to influence a person’s housing choices based on race and other protected factors violates federal fair housing laws and places you at risk of a discrimination complaint.
Trying Too Hard to Help: Fair Housing and Unintentional Discrimination Video (produced by the NAR)
Fair Housing—A Web of Legislation
Federal fair housing law consists of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, otherwise known as the Fair Housing Act. The act, as amended in 1988, provides that no one can be discriminated against in the sale, rental, or financing of residential dwellings on the basis of these protected classes:
Federal protected classes: Race Color Religion Sex Handicap Familial status National origin
TIP: The handicapped category under the Fair Housing Act includes not only obvious physical handicaps, but mental handicaps, alcoholism, and AIDS. Current abusers of controlled substances are not covered.
Download the Fair Housing Pocket Guide for Realtors (2010 by the National Association of Realtors®)
Exceptions to the Rules
An owner who sells or rents a single-family home without the services of a real estate practitioner is exempt from coverage if he or she doesn’t own or have an interest in more than three single-family houses and doesn’t engage in advertising .
Owners of buildings designed for occupancy by up to four families are exempt from the Fair Housing Act as long as they live in one of the rental units and do not use any advertising or the assistance of a real estate professional. However, discrimination on the basis of race is never lawful.
Owners or managers of qualified “housing for older person” may refuse to rent to families with children. To qualify, a property must have at least 80 percent of the units occupied by at least one person 55 years of age or older and be marketed to those 55 or older.
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