Archive for category Protected Classes

FAIR HOUSING – PART 1: What Are The Protected Classes?

Jul 10

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, Protected Classes, Screening Tenants | 2 Comments

A large part of my law practice is meeting with and consulting with landlords and management companies with regard to how to avoid trouble. This would include assisting them with the drafting of rental documents and guiding them on the proper notice to use when terminating a tenancy. It also includes consulting with clients with regard to fair housing / discrimination issues.

I enjoy this consulting work as it typically occurs before the landlord is embroiled in a dispute or litigation – thus my client tends to be in a better mood at the consulting stage which puts me in a better mood also.

Recently I have had a lot of calls on topics related to discrimination and fair housing and so I thought that I would devote several posts in the future to topics related to fair housing issues.

The easiest place to start would be to identify the various protected classes under Federal and Wisconsin law.

Federal law (which starts at 42 U.S.C. 3601 et. seq.) has 7 protected classes which are:

1. Race

2. Color

3. National Origin

4. Sex

5. Religion

6. Familial Status

7. Handicap

Wisconsin law (which is found at §106.50(1), Wis. Stats) also includes the above 7 protected classes plus adds an additional 5 more, which include:

1. Marital Status

2. Sexual Orientation

3. Lawful Source of Income

4. Ancestry

5. Age (18 years and older)

It is important for managers and owners to also check their local municipal ordinances as well as because there are some municipalities that have added additional protected classes. The city of Madison for instance also treats convicted criminals, students, and a person’s physical appearance as additional protected classes. You can read more about the City of Madison municipal code – Ch. 32 entitled Landlord and Tenant here.

So if you make a housing decision based on a person’s membership in a protected class you may have discriminated against them. Discrimination in housing covers a wide range of activities such as: refusing to rent to, refusing to discuss rental terms with, refusing to allow the inspection of rental housing, refusing to renew a lease, causing the eviction of, misrepresenting the availability of rental housing, applying different terms or standards, and engaging in harassment, intimidation, or coercion of.  There are many more but you get the general idea.

It is important to remember that a landlord does not need to have the intent to discriminate in order to be found to have engaged in discrimination.  Also be aware that most insurance policies do not cover an owner’s or manager’s discriminatory acts.

Remember that just because someone is a member of a protected class does not mean that you cannot deny them rental or evict them. It only becomes discrimination if you do the above because they are members of a protected class.  So if you are denying a person rental or filing an eviction action against an individual for reasons other then their protected class status then you are not discriminating against them. For example, if a person does not meet your screening criteria because they have been evicted in the past, have no prior rental history, or their gross monthly income is not 3 times the monthly rent (or some other legal screening criteria that you have in place) then it is not discrimination to deny that person rental even though they may also be a member of a protected class.

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NEW LEGISLATION TO MAKE VICTIMS OF ABUSE A NEW PROTECTED CLASS

May 15

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination, Legislation, Protected Classes | 2 Comments

On May 14, 2009, Wisconsin Senator Spencer Coggs along with 7 other state senators introduced 2009 Senate Bill 204 entitled the “Victim Fair Housing Act.”

This bill will prohibit discrimination in housing on the basis of a person’s status as a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking. The bill also prohibits the owner of housing from requiring that a rental applicant supply information concerning the person’s status as a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking.

If passed (and there appears to be a great many co-sponsors to date) this bill will create an additional protected class in Wisconsin for victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and/or stalking with regard to housing. Discrimination in housing includes such actions as rejecting a person who applies to rent your property or causing the eviction of a current tenant solely because they are a member of a protected class. Wisconsin currently prohibits discrimination in housing based on a person’s sex, race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religion, national origin, marital status, family status, lawful source of income, age, or ancestry. Some municipalities like the City of Madison and Dane County have even more protected classes then the twelve mentioned above.

While I am not aware of any landlord that would refuse to rent to a victim of abuse in theory it is when that theory is dropped into the “real world” that sticky situations may arise. One concern I have is the fact that the abuser often follows his/her victim. This could pose noise and safety issues for the other tenants that reside in the same building with the abuse victim. What happens if the abuser shows up at the victim’s apartment banging on doors and disturbing the quiet enjoyment of the other tenants? Is a landlord allowed to evict the abuse victim/tenant in this situation? Or worse, what if the abuser shows up at the property and engages in criminal acts such as destroying the landlord’s property or assaulting other tenants who get in his/her way? Will the landlord be prohibited under this new law from evicting the abuse victim/tenant under this scenario? While I don’t think it is fair to evict the abuse victim in these situations I also don’t think it is fair that the other tenants and neighbors should have to endure such situations either. What is the landlord who is providing housing to that abuse victim to do? The landlord also owes his/her other tenants the right to quiet use and enjoyment of the property and to be free from criminal activity and harm.

Another concern is the fact that under the City of Milwaukee’s nuisance ordinances a landlord can be fined for having repeated calls to the police from the same property within a certain period of time. If the abuser should try to contact the abuse victim/tenant there is a strong probability that the victim will call the police (and they should). But under the nuisance laws, even if the police calls are legitimate, if there are too many of them the owner of that property may be fined. If the landlord doesn’t pay the fine it will be added to his/her property tax bill. While I have no supporting data, I think it stands to reason that a victim of abuse may need to contact the police more often than a non-victim of abuse

I don’t know what the answer is or should be. I certainly don’t think that victims of abuse should be discriminated against in housing but I also hope that the legislators, the police, the city and others that will be drawn into this dialogue will understand that there needs to be some protections or accommodations made to a landlord who may be stuck between the proverbial “rock and a hard place.”

Tell me what you think about this new legislation and how it might affect your rental properties.

Here is a link to view the press conference regarding the Victim Fair Housing Act.

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