October 9, 2015
Recently we posted about an FHA/HUD press release announcing action against a Pennsylvania landlord who allegedly discriminated against families with children in his rental practices. The same kinds of violations of the Fair Housing Act can occur when trying to buy a home, and such cases are important as awareness-raising tools.
When examining these issues, it becomes apparent that many people aren’t fully aware of their rights under the Fair Housing Act. Renters, house hunters, landlords and property owners alike are affected by this important federal law. But what ARE the rules under the Fair Housing Act?
You can find a wealth of information at the FHA/HUD official site, which features a page called Fair Housing-It’s Your Right. That page includes (but is not limited to) the following information:
“The Fair Housing Act protects people from discrimination when they are renting, buying, or securing financing for any housing. The prohibitions specifically cover discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability and the presence of children…”
As the official site says, these laws cover “most housing”, but adds, “In some circumstances, the Act exempts owner-occupied buildings with no more than four units, single-family housing sold or rented without the use of a broker, and housing operated by organizations and private clubs that limit occupancy to members.”
When it comes to selling or renting a home, here’s a list of prohibited practices:
“No one may take any of the following actions based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap:
- Refuse to rent or sell housing
- Refuse to negotiate for housing
- Make housing unavailable
- Deny a dwelling
- Set different terms, conditions or privileges for sale or rental of a dwelling
- Provide different housing services or facilities
- Falsely deny that housing is available for inspection, sale, or rental
- For profit, persuade owners to sell or rent (blockbusting) or
- Deny anyone access to or membership in a facility or service (such as a multiple listing service) related to the sale or rental of housing.”
For mortgage lending transactions, the FHA/HUD official site tells us:
“No one may take any of the following actions based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap (disability):
- Refuse to make a mortgage loan
- Refuse to provide information regarding loans
- Impose different terms or conditions on a loan, such as different interest rates, points, or fees
- Discriminate in appraising property
- Refuse to purchase a loan or
- Set different terms or conditions for purchasing a loan.”
We’ll examine other rights and protections under the Fair Housing Act in a future blog post.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It is designed especially for real estate websites widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those websites.
All you need to do is spend a few seconds customizing the state, counties, and widget size for the tool; you can copy the code and paste it into your website with ease. Get yours today:
http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_limits_widget
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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