What is the Fair Housing Act?
The Fair Housing Act is a federal law, enacted in 1968, that prohibits housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, nationality, familial status, or disability. It applies to HOAs just as much as it applies to landlords and real estate agencies.
Why does the Fair Housing Act matter?
A rule that seems neutral on paper, an occupancy limit, a pet policy, can still violate the Fair Housing Act if it disproportionately affects a protected group, like families with children or residents with disabilities who need an assistance animal. HUD’s own guidance (Notice FHEO-2020-01) narrows the board’s job to two questions whenever the disability or the need for the animal isn’t obvious: does the resident have a disability, and does the animal do something, a task, an assistance function, an emotional-support role, that eases a symptom of that disability. If either answer is no, the board isn’t required to grant an exception to a no-pets policy; if both are yes, it generally has to, and unlike the trained service dogs and miniature horses covered under the ADA, an emotional support animal recognized under the Fair Housing Act needs no training at all. Boards that skip this test, or that mistakenly hold a Fair Housing request to the ADA’s stricter training standard, can end up facing a real discrimination claim without ever intending to discriminate.
When You’ll Run Into This
This becomes urgent the moment a resident requests a reasonable accommodation, an assistance animal despite a pet policy, a modification for accessibility, and the board isn’t sure how to respond. Getting legal guidance before denying a request like that is almost always the safer move.
