“Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you” goes the mantra that all of us heard as children, usually from Mom. Then we grew up and became landlords. It turns out that words can hurt you.
Use the wrong word in advertising for your rental property, or say it to an applicant or current tenant in person, on the phone, in a letter or in a notice, and you can suffer the sticks and stones of the Fair Housing enforcers.
The Fair Housing Act decrees that you may not use words that would produce an “aggrieved” person, that is, tend to lead an applicant or current tenant to suspect that he or she is not welcome because of the color of his or her skin, race, national origin, religion, gender, disability or familial status. Some localities even forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, source of income and criminal record.
It’s not what you meant, it’s what someone thinks you might have meant that brings out the sticks-and-stones arsenal. In fact the Fair Housing Act defines an “aggrieved” person as someone who, among other things believes that he or she “will be injured by a discriminatory housing practice that is about to happen.” It hasn’t happened yet, but it might.
Some of these interpretations require a real mental stretch. For example, take the one in the body of the Fair Housing Act itself . It uses the example of giving directions to a rental property using a Catholic Church as implying that the property is in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood.
You could well be completely innocent in saying what you said. After all, the Catholic Church is a famous landmark in your city, so it is the easiest way to give directions. The fact that there are more Buddhists in the neighborhood than Catholics doesn’t matter a whit, however. Someone might think that because you specifically mentioned the Catholic Church that you wanted to rent only to Catholics.
How to avoid all that? First, get really good at describing the features and benefits of your rental property. Features include size, number of bedrooms and baths, remodeled kitchens, pools, proximity to shopping, schools and transportation, and anything else that talks about the property, not the type of person who would enjoy it. Benefits are those good feelings that people will get from living in your property, such as pride, well-being for the family, and savings.
Second, make yourself phone scripts. You know what questions potential tenants will ask, so write the answers down in advance. That way you will answer everyone who calls exactly the same way. Remember, if there’s a wrong way to say it, you will.
Landlords with the best of intentions have fallen victim to the Fair Housing enforcers. They may never cared or even considered what race, religion, color, national origin, or whatever applicants were, only that they would be good tenants; but they said the wrong word. No landlord ever came out on top of a Fair Housing complaint. Even if you win, you could end up in bankruptcy court.
In spite of what Mom said, words can hurt you.
