What is Fair Housing Act?
The Fair Housing Act is the federal law prohibiting discrimination in renting, selling, or financing housing based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. State and local laws often add protected classes (source of income, sexual orientation, age).
The seven federal protected classes — race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, disability — are the floor. Many states and cities add classes: source of income (including Section 8), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, military status, and others.
Common landlord traps: "I prefer no kids" (familial status violation), "we don't accept Section 8" (illegal in many states), "this neighborhood is mostly families" (steering, a fair-housing violation even without explicit refusal). Screening criteria must be applied consistently to all applicants regardless of class.
Fair-housing violations carry HUD fines up to $25,000 per first offense and tenant lawsuit exposure that can run into six figures. Document your screening criteria, apply them mechanically, and consult counsel before any "judgment call" denial.
Concepts that connect.
Tenant screening is the process of evaluating prospective renters against credit, income, eviction history, and reference checks before signing a lease. Rigorous screening is the single highest-leverage activity in landlord operations — bad tenants destroy returns, good tenants compound them.
Property management is the third-party service of leasing, collecting rent, handling repairs, and managing tenant relationships on a landlord's behalf. Typical cost in 2026: 8-10% of monthly rent collected, plus a leasing fee of 50-100% of one month's rent on new tenants.
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