FHA Basics

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If you are an apartment management professional, it is good practice to presume your community is covered under our federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) as well as its state (and/or city or county counterpart). Indeed, under the federal law “dwelling” is defined as “any building, structure, or portion thereof which is occupied as, or designed…

It is clear that just about all (if not all) of the federal, state, and local fair housing agencies are dealing with the exponential growth of online medical verifications for emotional support animals (ESA’s). I have addressed any number of ESA issues in this space. Professional apartment management companies continue to look for the appropriate…

My favorite Fair Housing Defense blog post is always the first entry of each new year.  That is because I ask my Firm to compile a list of the most read entries from the previous year.  To that end, here we go with the Top Ten 2017 Fair Housing Defense posts (you can click on…

December will be here very soon. With the change in the calendar comes Christmas, Hanukkah, and other holidays. Always a great time for kids and families. Santa Claus. Christmas trees. Menorahs. Decorations. For professional apartment management, however, the question of what to do (or not do) with respect to holiday displays and decorations comes up…

A Fair Housing Defense blog reader sent me a question about live-in aides which I thought I would answer with some general guidance in a post.

First, in order to have a live-in aide, a resident would need to meet the definition of “disabled” (or handicapped) in the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Unless the…

Pursuant to an agreement announced last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it resolved a discrimination complaint filed by local housing advocacy groups against Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The complaint challenged the fairness of Maryland’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program.  As detailed by HUD,…

In response to a question, here is a short Fair Housing Act (FHA) primer on the timeline for responding to reasonable accommodation or reasonable modification requests. Under our FHA, “discrimination” includes “a refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services, when such accommodations may be necessary to afford such person equal…