Business Handshake with giving keysWhat is fair housing?

Fair housing is the right to choose housing free from unlawful discrimination. The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) and Ohio laws protect people from discrimination in housing based on the following protected classes: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, disability, ancestry and military status. Discrimination is illegal in housing transactions such as rentals, sales, lending, and insurance.

Tips for Housing Providers

As a housing provider, you are responsible for understanding the Fair Housing Act and its relevance to your housing policies. It is encouraged that all housing providers conduct the following activities to ensure safety from discrimination:

Develop Standard Procedures and Clear Policies

Determine exactly how your rental agents will deal with prospective tenants. The crucial requirement is that all persons who inquire about rentals be treated in the same manner and that the sequence in which they are told about apartments, shown apartments, asked for credit references, etc., be identical for all and that the information given by the rental agent be the same in every case. Put this procedure in writing. The following are guidelines:

  • Tell applicant about all existing vacancies;
  • Tell applicant about all units that will be available within the next 30 days;
  • Show applicant all apartments in which he or she has expressed an interest;
  • Tell applicant what will be done to redecorate or refurbish units;
  • Tell applicant the rent for each unit; whether utilities are included; what is required in the way of a security deposit, etc.;
  • Ask applicant to fill out application form;
  • Ask applicant for credit references;
  • If there are no vacancies or no units that will be available within 30 days, ask applicant if he or she would like to be placed on a waiting list;
  • Give applicant a business card;
  • If there is a waiting list, notify applicants in the order in which they applied.

Your own procedures may vary from this example. This is all right, provided you use them uniformly for all applicants. All decisions on whether to accept or reject applicants must be based on identical criteria. Therefore, it is important to establish written criteria by which you will qualify prospective tenants. These criteria should be available to all applicants.

Applicants who are rejected should be notified within a reasonable period and should be told why they have been rejected. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) states that if you deny an applicant for a credit related transaction, they must be informed why.

Educate Your Employees

  • Review your standardized rental office procedures with all employees at regular intervals;
  • Provide fair housing training for all employees;
  • Provide all employees with written non-discrimination policy;
  • Ask each employee to sign a memorandum of understanding that states your intention to terminate the employment of an employee who violates the fair housing laws;
  • Make It Known That You Obey Fair Housing Laws;
  • Hang a fair housing poster in a clearly visible location in the room where rental business occurs. Standard Fair Housing posters can be acquired by calling the HUD Distribution Center at 1-800-767-7468 and requesting publication HUD-928.1;
  • Use an equal opportunity logo or statement on all brochures and pamphlets;
  • Use an equal opportunity statement of rental applications;
  • Avoid advertising that could be construed as an attempt to select or discourage persons on the basis of any of the protected classes;
  • Maintain a list of available apartments to be shown to rental applicants to ensure that all applicants are given the same information. Include on this list such things as the apartment number, the rent, utilities, security deposit, date of availability, and deposit required.

Who is liable?

Virtually everyone involved in the ownership or leasing of the property at issue can potentially be held liable for a fair housing violation–from leasing consultants to the owners of the management company and the owner of the property.