Fair Housing Act

Key Takeaways

• The federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 bans discrimination in the sale, rental, financing, and advertising of housing because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability.
• The Fair Housing Act reaches everyone involved in a housing transaction, including brokers, owners, property managers, lenders, and advertisers, and it covers nearly all housing, including privately owned housing.
• In Washington, chapter 49.60 RCW covers the same conduct and names a longer list of protected characteristics, adding marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship or immigration status, and honorably discharged veteran or military status (RCW 49.60.222).
• In Washington, a complaint about an unfair practice in a real estate transaction may be filed with the Washington State Human Rights Commission within one year after the practice occurs or terminates, compared with six months for most other claims under the chapter (RCW 49.60.230).

What It Means

The Fair Housing Act is the 1968 federal law that makes it illegal to discriminate against people looking for a place to live. It covers the sale of a home, the rental of an apartment, the financing that pays for either one, and the advertising used to market them. HUD states the protection broadly: people are covered when they are renting or buying a home, getting a mortgage, seeking housing assistance, or engaging in other housing-related activities.

Seven federal protected classes sit at the center of the law: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. A Protected Class is not a group that receives extra rights. It is a characteristic that nobody may use as a reason to treat a housing applicant differently.

The Act reaches everyone in the transaction, not only the owner. A listing broker who accepts a discriminatory instruction, a lender who prices a loan by neighborhood, a property manager who pushes families toward one building, and a publisher who runs a discriminatory advertisement are all exposed. Practices with their own names, such as Steering and Blockbusting, are simply the ways the ban gets broken.

How It Works in Washington

The Fair Housing Act sets a national floor. State law may go further, and Washington's does. In Washington, the Law Against Discrimination, chapter 49.60 RCW, makes the same conduct an unfair practice and protects a longer list of people.

RCW 49.60.222 makes it an unfair practice to refuse to engage in a real estate transaction, to discriminate in its terms, conditions, or privileges, to refuse to receive or to fail to transmit a bona fide offer, to refuse to negotiate, to represent that real property is not available for inspection, sale, or rental when it is available, to circulate a discriminatory advertisement or statement, or to accept a listing with a discriminatory understanding. The statute applies that list to discrimination because of sex, marital status, sexual orientation, race, creed, color, national origin, citizenship or immigration status, families with children status, honorably discharged veteran or military status, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability.

Set that beside the seven federal classes and four categories stand out that the federal law does not name: marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship or immigration status, and honorably discharged veteran or military status. Washington also names the use of a trained dog guide or service animal on its own, and it says creed where the federal law says religion and families with children status where the federal law says familial status. A Washington broker who complies only with the federal list is still exposed under state law.

Enforcement in Washington runs through the Washington State Human Rights Commission, created by RCW 49.60.050. Under RCW 49.60.230 an aggrieved person may file a complaint with the commission, and for an unfair practice involving a real estate transaction the window is one year after the practice occurs or terminates. Fair housing is also built into Washington broker education: RCW 18.85.101 requires three hours of instruction on fair housing and consumer protection issues inside the 90 prelicense hours, and again inside the 90 hours owed at first renewal. Our guide to Washington fair housing continuing education works through how much a renewing broker owes.

Example

Nadia lists a duplex in Spokane at $525,000 and tells her broker, Wes, that she will not consider families with young children because of the open stairway. Wes writes the instruction into the listing file and turns down a showing request from a couple with a four-year-old son.

Two separate problems follow. Under the federal Fair Housing Act, familial status is a protected class, and refusing to negotiate for a dwelling for that reason is prohibited. In Washington, RCW 49.60.222 makes it an unfair practice both to refuse to receive or transmit a bona fide offer and to accept a listing with an understanding that the property will be withheld because of families with children status. Wes is exposed for taking the instruction at all, before he ever turned anyone away.

The couple files with the Washington State Human Rights Commission four months later. That is inside the one-year window RCW 49.60.230 allows for a real estate transaction, so the complaint is timely. Nadia cannot cure the problem by pointing at the stairway, because a safety worry about a building is not a lawful reason to screen out children; if the stairway is a real hazard, it is a disclosure and repair question, not a tenant selection question. The right move for Wes was to decline the instruction on the spot, before the $525,000 listing was ever taken.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• Washington's protected characteristics under chapter 49.60 RCW are broader than the seven federal Fair Housing Act classes, so an answer that lists only the federal seven is wrong on a Washington question.
• Creed is Washington's word for what the federal Act calls religion, and families with children status is Washington's word for familial status, so the same idea appears under two different labels on the two statutes.
• The ban covers advertising and statements on their own. Circulating a discriminatory advertisement is an unfair practice under RCW 49.60.222 whether or not any sale or lease ever happens.
• In Washington, the filing deadline with the Human Rights Commission is one year for an unfair practice involving a real estate transaction, not the six months that applies to most other claims under chapter 49.60 RCW.