Contemporary Information Corp – The Fair Housing Act and Rentals
Contemporary Information Corp (CIC) works closely with rental property owners in ensuring they maintain compliance with relevant federal, state, and municipal regulations, including tenant screening laws. Enacted in 1968, the The Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq) came about in the wake of the Civil Rights Era and sought to redress issues such as residential segregation, zoning laws, and restrictive covenants.
The Fair Housing Act (FHA), as passed in 1968, prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin. With limited enforcement provisions, the Act took time to develop into the set of laws we know today. In 1988, its scope broadened significantly with the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, which expanded its scope of protected classes to include families with children and those with physical or mental disabilities.
Today the FHA spans the protected classes of national origin, familial status, color, religion, sex, and disability. It covers a wide range of home and dwelling types, including private homes, apartments, dormitories, mobile home parks, nursing homes, and homeless shelters. Its applicability spans various housing-related transactions, from home purchases to rental applications. It makes discrimination illegal in mortgage lending, homeowners’ insurance, and appraisals.
FHA is coordinated and enforced through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO). The FHEO has been in existence since 1968 and also manages public outreach, which informs citizens of their rights under federal fair housing laws and policies. The office pursues investigations of complaints, oversees fair housing grants, and handles compliance reviews, including those of HUD programs.
From the rental property owner’s perspective, knowing the basics of federal Fair Housing Law helps avoid situations of unintentionally discriminating against a protected class. With Discrimination in Housing Based Upon National Origin, the focus is on the place where either the person was born or where their ancestors originated.
The Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice has successfully sued loan providers under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, as well as the FHA. These actions have imposed underwriting standards of greater stringency on entities that have made loans to borrowers of certain national origin, on less favorable terms. They have also involved actions against specific private landlords demonstrated as having discriminated in tenant selection.
With regards to families, landlords in general cannot refuse selling or renting to families that have children. The one exception is facilities designated as being Housing for Older Persons (55 years of age), which may function as as senior housing. In addition, landlords can’t locate families with children within a specific portion of a complex, or set unreasonable restrictions on the number of total people living in a single dwelling.
Such laws and restrictions extend to discrimination on the basis of disability, or mental or physical impairments spanning everything from blindness to chronic fatigue. It’s important to note that the FHA doesn’t provide any protections to people, whatever their classification status, who directly threaten “persons or property of others.” Another aspect of this is no discrimination in land use and zoning decisions against those with disabilities who choose to live in group homes under The Fair Housing Act. Contemporary Information Corp has in-depth knowledge of other elements of the FHA discrimination law spanning religion, sexual harassment, and ethnicity.
