3 Rules to Comply With the Fair Housing Act

By Jon Modene

Jon Modene, a real estate leader with over 30 years of experience, brings a wealth of knowledge to the property management side of his business.

Ask any experienced landlord what keeps them up at night, and Fair Housing compliance is somewhere near the top of the list. And for good reason. The Fair Housing Act is a federal law with a lot of moving parts, and the last thing you want is to be penalized, sued, or found guilty of discrimination. The tricky part is that most landlords aren’t trying to discriminate at all. They just want a tenant who can afford the rent and will take care of the place. But good intentions don’t protect you if you handle the process the wrong way.

So let me give you the ground rules my team and I follow on every single property to stay well clear of trouble. There are three, and they’re simpler than the law makes them feel.

1. Choose your words carefully in your advertising. This is where a lot of landlords get themselves into a mess before a single applicant ever calls. The rule is straightforward: describe the property, not the person. Stick to your unit’s amenities and facts: the square footage, the appliances, the parking, the pet policy.

What you don’t do is describe who you’re looking for in a renter. Any language that could be read as favoring one group over another is a headache waiting to happen. I’d also put a simple non-discrimination disclaimer at the bottom of every listing. I can’t emphasize this one enough, so I’ll say it twice: you can describe what you’re renting. You cannot describe who you want to rent to.

2. Never do anything that looks like steering. If you haven’t heard the term, steering is the practice of showing certain properties to certain people based on their race, their sex, or any other protected characteristic. It’s a serious violation, and it’s one landlords sometimes commit without realizing it, just by making an offhand comment about who might “fit” in a particular neighborhood or building. The fix is easy: let the tenant take the lead on which properties they want to see, and don’t volunteer opinions about what kind of person would want to live where. Show people what they ask to see, and stay out of the matchmaking business.

3. Use universal screening standards, and apply them to everyone. This is the big one. Put together a written rental policy that spells out your occupancy guidelines, your availability policy, and your rental criteria, and then hand that same standard to every applicant. Don’t share it with some people and not others.

You are absolutely allowed to run a real screening: you can ask about bankruptcies, judgments, and evictions, because those speak to whether someone can afford the unit and will honor the lease. What you cannot do is ask about race, disability, or any other protected-class information. The principle underneath all of it is simple. Treat everyone the same. Young or old, wealthy or not, whatever their background, everyone gets evaluated by the identical yardstick.

That last idea is really the heart of the whole law. Everyone has the right to be treated equally, and everyone has the right to live where they want to live if they can afford it. When your process is consistent and your criteria are written down and applied the same way every time, you’re not just complying with the law; you’re running a better, cleaner rental business.

The real estate market never stops changing, and the way we manage properties for investors today looks nothing like it did 10, 20, or 30 years ago. My team stays on top of these rules so you don’t have to lose sleep over them. Our motto is simple: a tradition of trust in real estate. If you’ve got a property management question, or you want help buying, selling, managing, or growing your real estate holdings, I’m here to help.

Call me at 419-466-7653, email me at jon@modene.com, or visit nworentals.com. I’m Jon Modene with Masters Property Management.