What You Need To Know About The Fair Housing Law

Establishing a relationship between tenants and landlords can be tough. In some cases, tenants might get upset about what it is included in their lease or they felt blindsided when the lease contract was made. On the other hand,  landlords may also find it challenging to deal with problematic tenants. This is the reason why screening for tenants is important.

Landlord-tenant laws govern the interactions between tenants and landlords. It is important to take note that there are laws that regulate everything. For instance, the law stipulates that the landlord should provide tenants a habitable environment while tenants need to ensure that they respect the property. This is where the Fair Housing Law comes in.

What Is The Fair Housing Law

The Fair Housing Law protects everyone, especially those who are seeking housing. This law prohibits discrimination of providing housing to people based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, disability, status, and age. In some cities, the law is further expanded such that discrimination against the source of income, sexual orientation, and gender identity are also enforced when providing housing. Housing providers including real estate brokers, builders, contractors, landlords, homeowners’ associations, loan, and financial institutions, advertising media, and insurance companies are required to follow the Fair Housing Law.

Under this law, the housing provider is prohibited to refuse or rent a unit based on stereotypes of the prospective house buyers through a property rental screening process. They are also prohibited to set different terms and conditions or provide different services to tenants due to discrimination. They are also not allowed to threaten or intimidate tenants to forcibly remove them from their dwellings. That’s why landlords need to implement fair and transparent tenant screening process.

Extra Protection For People With Disabilities

The Housing Law also provides protection to people with disabilities. Under this law, you are allowed to make the necessary modifications to your house for the disabled family member to live comfortably. Housing providers should also provide reasonable policies and rules that are necessary for disabled individuals to use the unit. For instance, if the apartment has a “no pets” policy, they should make an exemption especially if the tenant has a guide or service dog.

The Benefits Of Fair Housing Law

The Fair Housing Law gives both the tenants and landlord the freedom against discrimination in terms of housing transactions. This law covers almost all types of housing in the country including single-family homes, apartments, condominiums, and others. There are benefits of such law and these include the following:

• It ensures success when finding homes: The fair housing ensures that everyone will be able to find a house that fits their needs and preferences. It gives people the right to choose a house without dealing with stereotypes and discrimination.
• It encourages neighbors to be more welcoming: This law encourages people in the neighborhood to be more welcoming to new people coming in. This gives them a sense of connection as communities become diverse when opened to all types of people.
• It improves communities: Providing equal housing to people improves communities. Once people feel that they are welcome in a new neighborhood, they will invest back to the community thus improving the economy of the place.

The fair housing law ensures that everyone has access to decent homes without the fear of discrimination and stereotyping.