Selecting Tenants and Discrimination
Looks like I'll be living in an apartment next year, as of now. So a lot of this research will come in handy.
Landlords! Look out for potential lawsuits!
The federal Fair Housing Act and Fair Housing Amendments Act (42 U.S. Code §§ 3601-3619, 3631) prohibit landlords from choosing tenants on the basis of a group characteristic such as:
Race
Religion
Ethnic background or national origin
Sex
Age
The fact that the prospective tenant has children (except in certain designated senior housing)
A mental or physical disability
I'm not sure about Ohio, but some state and local laws prohibit discrimination based on a person's marital status or sexual orientation. On the reverse side to these discrimination policies, landlords are allowed to choose tenants using a criterion that is based on business reasons. Reasons such as requiring a certain minimum income or a positive reference from a previous landlord would both be legit reasons for choosing a tenant. The only requirement to these conditions is that they have to be applied equally to all of the tenants.
The Fair Housing Act and Amendments prohibit landlords from taking any of the following actions based on race, religion, or any other protected category. So watch out for these:
advertising or making any statement that indicates a preference based on group characteristic, such as skin color
falsely denying that a rental unit is available
setting more restrictive standards, such as higher income, for certain tenants
refusing to rent to members of certain groups
refusing to accommodate the needs of disabled tenants, such as allowing a guide dog, hearing dog or service dog
setting different terms for some tenants, such as adopting an inconsistent policy of responding to late rent payments, or
terminating a tenancy for a discriminatory reason.
USA Today "Guide to the Government"
http://usatoday.realestate.findlaw.com
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