It goes without saying that if you own a rental property in Arlington, you should be familiar with Fair Housing Laws. The basic principle of the law is to avoid discrimination against any potential tenant based on sex, race, color, religion, national origin, familial status, or disability.
Here is some fair housing advice that can help you avoid practicing any kind of discrimination throughout your rental business.
Avoid Discriminatory Advertising
The Fair Housing Act prohibits landlords from printing, publishing, or posting anything discriminatory in any manner through your Arlington property advertisements. Here are some examples of discriminatory property advertisements taglines that you need to avoid:
- 'a perfect home for couples'
- 'a house that any American would love to live in.'
- 'a perfect residence for athletes'
- mentioning discriminatory words like "limited to" or "exclusive for," 'only for," "not for families," or "not for disabled" in the ads
- posting the flyers only in a specific area in Arlington where the ads can be seen by only by tenants preferred by landlords
- using photographs that show only the people of one race or color for the ads
Follow the HUD Advertising Guidelines and the HUD Memorandum on Internet Advertising to ensure that all your rental advertisements abide by the Fair Housing Laws.
Make Your Property Accessible For The Disabled
If your house is not accessible to disabled tenants, it may be considered as an act of discrimination under Fair Housing Laws. The laws require landlords to have homes that can cater to individuals with disabilities such as blindness, HIV, chronic fatigue, or mental illnesses that may affect their day-to-day activities like walking, breathing, or working. According to the Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines and the HUD Memo on Fair Housing Accessibility Requirements, your Arlington rental house should:
- have an accessible building entrance and route
- have accessible public areas
- light switches, thermostats, etc. in accessible places
- a wheelchair-friendly kitchen and bathroom
Disabled tenants might also require the assistance of service animals in turning the lights on/off or bringing medicines. Since these animals are not considered pets, you are required to allow them on your rental without charging any pet fees.
Do Not Discriminate Against Families with Children
Landlords should avoid discriminating against families having children or expecting children. You should not set different rules for them, like a higher rent price, a fixed one-person-per-bedroom policy, allowing families with three children or less, or with children below ten years. Also, you cannot penalize or evict tenants for having a baby or adopting kids.
Practice Fair Tenant Screening Rules
Most of the Fair Housing Laws may be violated at the
time of tenant screening. Hence, Arlington landlords need to understand what is a reasonable reason to deny a tenant application and what isn’t.
You are allowed to check the applicants' credit score when they give you written permission for the same. There is no fixed minimum requirement of credit score, it varies as per the landlord’s discretion. However, the criteria should be the same for every applicant.
The HUD considers the individuals who spend more than 30% of their salaries on housing as "cost-burdened". To ensure that your applicants are capable of making monthly rental payments, you can check their pay stubs, tax returns, bank statements, employer references, social security benefit statements, or court-ordered agreements. You can decline an application if their records show that they may be unable to pay the rent.
