De facto

Key Takeaways

• De facto describes something that exists in actual practice, while de jure describes something established by law.
• A practice with nothing written behind it can still be an unfair practice under RCW 49.60.222, because that statute reaches what a person does because of a protected class.
• Blockbusting is the classic de facto pattern in real estate, and RCW 49.60.223 reaches an attempt to induce a sale as well as a completed one.
• Calling a practice de facto is a description, not a defense, and it lowers nothing under Washington's Law Against Discrimination.

What It Means

De facto is Latin for in fact. It labels an arrangement that exists in practice even though no law creates it. Its opposite, de jure, means by law, written into a statute, a rule, or a recorded document. Real estate students meet the pair in fair housing, where the distinction explains how a neighborhood ends up segregated with no statute ordering it.

De facto segregation grows out of private choices, lending patterns, income differences, and plain habit. De jure segregation is the kind a law required. The distinction matters for how a problem gets fixed, and it shows up on the license exam, but it does not decide whether conduct is legal. A broker who writes nothing down, yet steers callers toward some neighborhoods and away from others, is running a de facto policy that the Washington Law Against Discrimination treats as an unfair practice. The history behind that vocabulary is traced in Events preceding the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

The phrase also travels outside fair housing to describe who really runs something, such as a de facto manager who supervises without holding the title. Watch that usage. A role written into a statute is de jure, not de facto.

How It Works in Washington

Washington's Law Against Discrimination never asks whether a written policy exists. RCW 49.60.222 makes it an unfair practice, because of a protected class, to refuse to engage in a real estate transaction, to refuse to negotiate, to represent that property is not available when it is, or to fail to bring a property listing to a person's attention. Those are descriptions of conduct, so an unwritten habit sits squarely inside the statute.

The state's clearest de facto target is Blockbusting. RCW 49.60.223 makes it an unfair practice for any person, for profit, to induce or attempt to induce any person to sell or rent any real property by representations regarding the entry or prospective entry into the neighborhood of persons of a particular race, creed, color, sex, national origin, citizenship or immigration status, sexual orientation, families with children status, honorably discharged veteran or military status, or the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability. Nothing has to be in writing, and no sale has to close. The same is true of Steering, which is measured by which listings a buyer was shown. Washington brokers keep this current through fair housing continuing education, explained in Washington fair housing CE, why you almost certainly need just 3 hours.

One caution on vocabulary. The chair of the Washington State Real Estate Commission is sometimes described as a de facto member. RCW 18.85.021 establishes the commission as consisting of the director, who is the chair, and six commission members appointed by the governor for six year terms. A seat created by statute is de jure.

Example

Sound Ridge Realty in Tacoma has no written policy about neighborhoods. Broker Ellen Cho works from habit instead. When a caller's name sounds Somali, she sends listings from two zip codes in the south end and leaves out the four homes between $480,000 and $520,000 in the north end that match the same saved search. Over ten months, 18 of her buyer clients get the shortened list.

No manual tells Ellen to do that, which is what makes it de facto. RCW 49.60.222(1)(e) reaches it anyway, because failing to bring a property listing to a person's attention because of national origin is an unfair practice. When one of those buyers closes in the south end at $455,000 and later learns what she was never sent, the absence of a written policy is not a defense. It is only the reason the pattern ran for ten months without anyone catching it.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• De facto does not mean lawful. It means the arrangement exists in practice, and a de facto practice can still be an unfair practice under RCW 49.60.222.
• De facto and de jure are not degrees of the same thing. De jure means created by law, so a seat or a duty written into a statute is never de facto.
• De facto segregation is not blockbusting. Segregation names a result, while blockbusting is a specific for profit practice banned by RCW 49.60.223.
• The Washington Real Estate Commission chair is often called a de facto member. RCW 18.85.021 makes the director the chair of the commission by statute, so that seat is de jure.