5 Ways you might be violating fair housing laws and not know it
You are a good person and treat everyone fairly, so you shouldn’t have to worry about federal fair housing laws right? Maybe, but you’d be surprised how a decision or policy could unintentionally affect a protected group in a negative way. Federal Fair Housing prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability. You should also be aware as to whether or not your state has some additional protected groups. This law seems pretty straightforward and I believe that for the most part people don’t want to unfairly discriminate. However, let me give you some examples of 5 ways you might be violating fair housing laws and not know it.
Example #1: A tenant is late with their rent. Their ecclesiastical leader calls and offers to pay their rent, but not the late fees, and asks if you’ll waive them. This can really pull at your heartstrings and you might want to say yes. However, consider how this could be perceived, you would be making exceptions for people of a certain religion. Now imagine how much worse it looks if they also happen to belong to the same religion that you do. Then you’d be making special exceptions for people that worship the same as you, not a good idea.
Example #2: If you have a listing that says no animals, no exceptions, you may be discriminating against those with a disability that need a service animal or emotional support animal. It is important to be aware and distinguish between pets and service animals.
Example #3: You receive a text message regarding a vacancy that is written in spanish, but unfortunately you don’t speak spanish. You write back and explain that you only speak english so you can only rent to those that speak english. Your response may only reflect your concerns regarding the ongoing logistics of communication and your ability to provide good service, but that text just discriminated against the national origins of some people.
Example #4: When working to fill a vacancy, people often collect several applications and then look through them to pick the one they like the best. This might seem like a good idea but the problem with this practice is that it can create lots of variations in your approval process. This lack of consistency can lead to a strong argument for discrimination against a protected group. It’s best to screen applications in the order they come in based on your written criteria, they are either approved and given a chance to sign up, or they are denied and you move on to the next one. This will make you much more consistent, rather than picking and choosing your favorite.
Example #5: You rent out individual rooms in your town home to college age single women. One of the women is moving so you advertise “women’s contract available”. Fair housing laws say this would be discrimination based on sex.
It is important to be aware of the laws and choose your words and policies carefully in order to avoid discrimination of protected groups. You should consult an attorney or hire a competent property manager (See our video, Questions to Ask When Hiring a Property Manager) https://kasteelproperty.com/top-5-important-questions-and-answers-when-hiring-a-property-manager/ ) The best way to avoid discrimination is to keep it simple by always sticking to the lease no matter who the person is or their circumstances. You should have your policies written down and follow them so that everyone is treated the same.
Keeping these things in mind, my screening criteria centers around three important questions that I want to answer, #1: Are they likely to pay the rent on time? #2 Are they likely to take proper care of the property? and #3: Is it likely they will be good to work with? If applicants meet these standards and I apply those same standards to all people, whether they’re in a protected group or not won’t be a concern.
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