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We’ll tell you what happened in each case—and how it may impact your property.
Most of you are pretty familiar with what the fair housing laws require. But it’s in the court rooms and administrative tribunals where the broad rules and principles of fair housing law are actually applied to real world situations. So, every once in a while we need to take a step back and look at what has been taking place in fair housing litigation across the country. And that’s precisely what this month’s lesson will do.
On average, 25,000 to 30,000 fair housing complaints are filed against landlords in the U.S. each year. Fueling this massive wave of litigation isn’t just the national determination to crack down on discrimination but the glut of potential plaintiffs, including not just the individual victims but also their allies, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), state and local fair housing agencies, and nongovernment fair housing organizations (FHOs). You may think that as long as you obey all the laws, you have nothing to worry about.
One reason that complying with fair housing laws is so challenging is that you can’t delegate your nondiscrimination duties the way you can with other legal obligations. Managing your own personal conduct isn’t enough; you’re also responsible for the third parties you hire to market, manage, police, landscape, repair, maintain, and perform other services for your housing community. This includes not only the employees you directly hire, train, and oversee but also the outside businesses you engage as contractors.
A look at recent cases yields some important lessons.
It’s against the law to commit housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status and handicap (disability).
In today’s highly competitive rental market, effective advertising is crucial to attracting the right renters. But for these very same reasons, your advertising and marketing practices can get you into fair housing hot water. The advertising media you select and the message you craft may be illegally exclusive.
Because enforcement is so active and penalties are so high, it’s easy to forget that complying with the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) may not be enough to insulate your community from liability. That’s because most states (and many municipalities) have adopted their own fair housing laws that go beyond the minimum FHA requirements, particularly with regard to the kinds of people they protect. For example, 23 states ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
“Retaliation” is a fancy word for revenge. It’s a nasty action that you take to get back at somebody for doing something bad to you. In the context of fair housing, retaliation means an unfavorable action a landlord takes like rejecting a rental applicant or evicting a tenant because he complains about discrimination or exercises any of his other rights under discrimination laws.
Leasing to students who attend or college or university in your geographic market can be an excellent source of income. At least 79 percent of the students attending a two- or four-year college live off-campus, according to the Urban Institute. In many rental markets, demand for student rental housing exceeds supply. Leasing to students also offers certain advantages, like the willingness of students to sign multi-year leases, even though they typically leave town during the summer.
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