Your Guide to the Fair Housing Act

 

What is the Fair Housing Act?

The Fair Housing Act is nothing but a federal law that protects certain individuals and families from discrimination within the sale, rental, financing, or advertising of housing.


The law was passed in 1968 with the understanding that individuals should have the right to rent a home, buy a home or get a mortgage without being treated differently based on their membership in a class of individuals. Nowadays, the same premise of shielding renters as well as buyers from discrimination is enforced on a federal and state level, but with more expanded protections.


Who is protected under the Fair Housing Act?

Rental applicants and residential buyers are protected under the Fair Housing Act no matter their race, color, sex, religion, disability, familial status, and national origin.


Additional Protected Classes


State as well as local laws may actually provide further protection to renters and buyers belonging to additional protected classes, a number of which are listed below.


  • Citizenship
  • Age
  • Veteran or military status
  • Genetic information
  • Sexual orientation
  • Gender identity or expression
  • Source of Income
  • Criminal history (arrest without conviction)

You should check your local and state fair housing laws to ensure that you’re following them in addition to the federal law.


Exemptions to Fair Housing Protections

Although most housing is actually covered by the Fair Housing Act, there are exceptions to when these protections don’t apply. Each and every state can choose if it wants to recognize the federal exemptions or not. The exemptions covered under the 1988 amendment include:


Owner-occupied housing: Multifamily homes of no more than four units, with a minimum of one unit being owner-occupied are exempt.

Age: People 62 years old or older, or in some cases, people 55 years old or older aren’t protected when a minimum of one occupant per unit is 55 and at least 80% of the units are occupied by individuals who age about 55 or older.

Religious organizations: Housing which is sponsored by a religious organization is exempt, as long as the religion doesn’t really discriminate in its acceptance policies.

Private clubs: Private Clubs are an organisation with certain requirements for membership is exempt, as long because it only offers housing to its members.

Single-family housing: Any single-family house sold or rented without a broker by an owner who actually doesn’t own more than 3 single-family homes at one time.

How can you really make a fair housing complaint?

If you feel that your rights to fair housing have actually been violated, you can easily file a formal complaint with the Department of Housing and urban Development (HUD). It’s the Fair Housing Act that sets forth the protections from discriminations, but it’s HUD that enforces and administers the Fair Housing Act.


Although you’ve got up to at least one year after an alleged violation to file a complaint, but you ought to file it as soon as possible to expedite the process. Furthermore, your claim will actually be investigated, and HUD will then determine if it’s valid and actually worthy of further legal action or not.


If you select to file a claim, you’ll need to provide the name, name of the company, and address of the person who you believe discriminated against you. You’ll also need to provide a short description of the alleged violation, and exactly how you think you were discriminated against.


You can actually complete a Housing Discrimination Complaint Form and then simply submit it online.

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