Posting ads with certain wording can get you fined $80,000 or more.
You need to make sure your ads are not violating the law.
It doesn’t matter if you’re the owner of a single family home or an apartment complex, you have to follow Fair Housing laws whenever you advertise your home.
You are prohibited from advertising your home in any discriminatory manner. Specifically section 804(c) of the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3604(c) states, “…it is unlawful to make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published, any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling, that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination.”
So when you advertise your home for rent on Craigslist, a website, or even an in-print ad, there are certain words you should not use.
Some owners have been fined $12,000 for every discriminatory ad they ran plus damages awarded by the court.
You should never talk about skin color in your ads. Never use phrases that have the words “white”, “black”, or “colored people”. Never talk about race in any of your ads.
Never use religious groups in your advertising. You should never uses phrases like “Christian home” or “Jewish only”.
If your rental home is in a good area of town or a good neighborhood use the wording “desirable neighborhood”. Desirable is open to the interpretation of the reader and is therefore not viewed as discriminatory.
Never restrict access to your home to people with disabilities. Never state in your ad “no wheelchairs” or “handicap people should not apply”. You can, however, describe the CONDUCT of an individual such as saying “no smoking” or “sober only”. You can also include accessibility features like “wheelchair ramp”.
Do not discriminate against children or parents. It is NOT ok to use the phrase “adult building”, “adults only”, or “no children”. In December of 2007, the Southern California Housing Rights Center brought charges against Robert Krug, a Monrovia landlord, alleging that he engaged in housing discrimination by not allowing children into his apartment complex. The suit, filed in March 2007, stated that the center had people pose as renters with families and approached the manager of Krug’s 28-unit apartment building in 2004. They were told the owner didn’t allow children. As part of a settlement reached, a federal court has fined Robert Krug nearly $140,000 for the federal offense.
Never mention familial status in your ads. You may not say things like “Parents with less than 2 children only”, or “Singles only”. Your ads can say things like “no bicycles allowed”.
Fair Housing regulations do not just govern your ads. They also govern how you screen tenants, your rental application, and how you treat your tenant the entire time they stay in your rental home.
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