The federal Fair Housing Act

The federal Fair Housing Act is Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, codified at 42 U.S.C. 3601 to 3619. It applies to the sale, rental, financing and advertising of dwellings, and it applies to every licensee in Florida.

The seven protected classes

The Act protects people based on:

Familial status means one or more children under 18 living with a parent, a legal custodian, or someone the parent or custodian has designated in writing. It also protects a person who is pregnant or is in the process of getting legal custody of a child under 18 (3602(k)).

Handicap means a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having one. Current illegal drug use is excluded (3602(h)).

Notice what is not on the federal list: age, marital status, occupation and source of income are not federal protected classes.

What is prohibited

Section 3604 makes these acts unlawful when based on a protected class:

• refusing to sell or rent after a bona fide offer, refusing to negotiate, or otherwise making a dwelling unavailable (a);
• different terms, conditions or privileges, or different services (b);
• any notice, statement or advertisement that indicates a preference, limitation or discrimination (c);
• telling someone a dwelling is not available for inspection, sale or rental when it is (d);
• for profit, inducing people to sell or rent by talking about protected classes moving into the neighborhood (e). This is blockbusting, sometimes called panic peddling.

For disability, 3604(f) also requires owners to allow reasonable modifications at the tenant's expense and to make reasonable accommodations in rules and policies.

Steering and redlining

Steering is restricting or trying to restrict a buyer's or renter's choices by word or conduct because of a protected class. HUD's rule (24 CFR 100.70) gives examples: discouraging someone from a neighborhood, exaggerating drawbacks or hiding good features, saying they would not fit in, or assigning them to one section of a community or one floor of a building.

Redlining is refusing to lend, or lending on worse terms, in an area because of the protected class makeup of the people there. Section 3605 bans discrimination in residential real estate-related transactions, which covers making loans and also selling, brokering and appraising residential property.

Section 3606 also bars denying anyone access to a multiple listing service or brokers' organization based on a protected class.

The advertising rule reaches everyone

Section 3604(c) is special. The exemptions in the next lesson do not cover it, so even an exempt owner may not run a discriminatory ad. Describe the property, not the people you hope will buy it.

Deadlines

HUD must try to finish its investigation within 100 days of the complaint or explain in writing why it cannot.