Never Rent Your Home With An Ad That Contains These Words
Thursday, February 19th, 2009If you are running ads that contain these words, you will likely be fined $100,000 or more and lose your rental home.
Now is the time to take action if you think your ads are violating Fair Housing law.
It doesn’t matter if you’re the owner of a single family home or an apartment complex, you have to follow Fair Housing laws whenever you advertise your home.
You are prohibited from advertising your home in any discriminatory manner. Specifically section 804(c) of the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3604(c) states, “…it is unlawful to make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published, any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling, that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination.”
So when you advertise your home for rent on Craigslist, a website, or even an in-print ad, there are certain words you should not use.
You can be fined more than $10,000 for each discriminatory ad, plus damages in court.
Do not refer to a persons skin color and do not use the words, “white”, “black”, “Hispanic”, “colored home”, and “no Hispanics”. Don’t even try to work race into the advertising of your home.
Do not use religion in your advertising. It is NOT ok to use (more…)
Helpful advice from an owner’s son about the importance of screening prospects before moving them in. It is a good educational video. It’s not meant to scare you away from renting your house out but rather to inform you and see how this owner ultimately got rid of his bad tenants.