If you’ve never heard of them, as a citizen you should know Fair Housing Laws are federal laws in place to protect those renting, selling, and financing dwellings, from being wrongfully discriminated against in their pursuit -based on things like race, familial status, handicap, religion, national origin, sex, and color.
Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, commonly referred to as the Fair Housing Act, is a major federal law protecting home buyers, renters, and others from such discrimination, a common practice that is estimated to occur more than two million times a year in the U.S.There is further protection written in the Act for those with disabilities, as landlords are required to allow reasonable modification of a rental property at the renter’s expense, in order to provide necessary accommodations to the renter. Landlords may require tenants to return the property to its original state in some instances.
Under this law, landlords with “no pets” policies would be required to allow a guide dog to accommodate a visually impaired tenant if requested.
So before you take any steps to rent out your investment property, make sure you read the Fair Housing Act and then conduct your tenant screenings in a law-abiding and honest way.