Just about everyone in Cleveland knows something about fair housing laws, but often landlords think they do not apply to their situation. Not too long ago I was the rental agent for a nice 3 bedroom property in a good west side of Cleveland neighborhood. As her property manager, I brought in great potential tenants. They were a young couple with no children, and each had a good job. The owner turned them down because they were living together but not married. I advised the owner, that these people both had great jobs and after checking their references, I was confident that they would always pay on time and not cause any problems. She said that she was a Christian and did not believe in people living together if not married, and she would not allow it in her house.
So I checked with a few other real estate agents. Everyone assumed it was a fair housing violation to refuse to rent to people because they were not married. I checked Federal Fair Housing laws and also check Ohio Fair Housing laws. Nope. Marital status is not a protected class... at least it is not a protected class under the Fair Housing Act or under Ohio Fair Housing. I had done a lot of work and lost what I felt were great tenants. This said, there are many references online that state marital status is a protected class.
Next, this same landlord wanted me to make sure we did not rent to a family with a lot of kids. I told her that this would not be legal. She respected my concerns, and then asked me to change the listing such that we represented this three bedroom bungalow as a two bedroom unit. Her thought was that with only two bedrooms, we would get smaller families. On the surface, listing the bungalow as a 2 bedroom unit would probably not be illegal, but clearly, the purpose was to discriminate against families with children. I had spent countless hours on this property because the landlord was so picky… but I had to resign. She had no problem finding another real estate agent who would find her the kind of tenant that she wanted.
In my opinion, the best way to not get in trouble with Fair Housing laws as a property manager is simply not to discriminate. I always thought that if I ever was accused of discrimination, my defense would be that I have a pure heart, love all people and simply do not discriminate. But it is not that simple. It turns out that many tenants are “trained” to make accusations of discrimination any time they do not get their own way. It also turns out that there are "testers" running around pretending to be members of a protected class and attempting to trap landlords into violating fair housing laws.
I recently leased a unit to a tenant coming in with a section 8 voucher. Everything was great, but within about two weeks, she started complaining about everything. "My staff was treating her badly", the "neighbors were threatening her", and so on. Then she brought in a dog. There was no dog allowed based upon her lease, and when she asked if she could have a dog, she was told no.
So now we have a dog. This dog is what my staff described as a very nasty, mange dog. I told the tenant that the dog had to go. She told me that she needed the dog as an emotional support animal. I asked her if she had a prescription from a medical provider. She said “yes”. I asked if she had the prescription in hand. She said “no”. Two days later, she showed up with a prescription from a social worker, dated that day, stating that she would benefit from an emotional support animal. This dog had fleas, and chewed up a brand new porch. She kept the dog outside and the dog food brought rodents.
Somewhere in the above story is a lesson, but I have not yet figured it out.
What I do know if that it is very helpful, if not essential, to have written tenant acceptance guidelines as a landlord or property manager. Mine include the following:
Denying tenancy based on criminal history may seem obvious, but again it is not that simple. Apparently, recent HUD guidelines point out that minorities are convicted of crimes at a higher rate than non-minorities. This is known as Disparate Impact, which occurs when policies, practices, rules or other systems that appear to be neutral result in a disproportionate impact on a protected group. So because of this recent interpretation, we are advised to only disqualify for crimes against people or property.
I take it a step further and look at a history of irresponsible behavior. For example, most would agree that a speeding ticket should not disqualify someone from renting a house. But perhaps 15 traffic violations including illegal plates, driving with a suspended license, DUI, failure to appear, etc., all within a 2 or 3 year period demonstrates a history of irresponsibility. I would argue, how can a tenant pay their rent if they are in jail? The challenge here is to be very judicial, and apply the rules irrespective of whether or not the individual is a member of a protected class.
Another thing to consider is the advertising and the interview. It is illegal to ask a tenant how many children they have. However, we can ask how many occupants. This seems silly to me, but I do not make the rules. I am told, that we can not ask a disabled person any question that we would not ask a non-disabled person. For example, a man with a cane is interested in the upstairs unit. It may be a fair housing violation to ask this person if he can handle the flight of stairs… no matter how well intentioned the question is.
Fair Housing Rules are one of the reasons why property managers are required to have a real estate license and attend Fair Housing continuing education classes every few years to keep up with the changes.
Fair Housing Guide
