The vast majority of fair housing complaints filed in the US do not involve landlords trying to discriminate. They involve landlords trying to be reasonable, making decisions that feel like good judgment, and discovering after the fact that one of those decisions falls afoul of the Fair Housing Act.
Here are the five most common mistakes — and the screening checklist our compliance co-pilot Lena runs on every application summary before it ever lands in a landlord's inbox.
The seven protected classes (federal)
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), familial status (including having children), and disability. Many states and cities add more: source of income (including Section 8 vouchers), age, marital status, military status, criminal history (in some jurisdictions).
That last one — criminal history — is where most well-meaning landlords trip.
Mistake 1: Blanket bans on criminal history
HUD guidance since 2016 has been clear: a blanket "no felonies ever" policy is a fair housing problem because of the disparate impact on protected classes. You need an individualized assessment: nature of the offense, time elapsed, what the applicant has done since. Many cities (Seattle, San Francisco, NYC, Newark) have explicit ban-the-box laws for housing that go further.
Mistake 2: Inconsistent screening criteria
If you require a 650 credit score for some applicants and 600 for others, you have a fair housing problem — even if you did not mean to. The fix: write down your screening criteria before you ever look at an application, apply them identically to every applicant, and document any exception in writing with a non-protected-class reason.
Mistake 3: Asking the wrong questions on the application
You cannot ask: where were you born, what country are your parents from, what is your religion, are you pregnant, how many children do you have, do you have a disability, what medications do you take, are you married, what is your sexual orientation. You also cannot ask anything that is a proxy for these — "do you observe any holidays we should know about," "what languages do you speak at home."
You CAN ask: income, employment, previous landlords, eviction history (where legal), credit history, and references — applied identically to every applicant.
Mistake 4: Discriminatory listing language
"Perfect for a young professional couple" — familial status discrimination. "Walkable to St. Mark's Cathedral" — religion proxy. "No section 8" — illegal in many states. "Must speak English" — national origin. "Single occupant preferred" — familial status.
Lena flags every listing draft for this language before it goes live.
Mistake 5: Skipping the adverse action notice
If you decline an applicant based on information in their credit report or background check, you are required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to send them an adverse action notice: what you used, who provided it, and how they can dispute it. Failing to send this notice is the single most common FCRA violation we see in small-landlord operations.
The Lena checklist
On every screening summary, Lena automatically checks:
- Were your stated screening criteria applied identically to this applicant?
- Did the application avoid all protected-class questions?
- If declining based on criminal history, is there an individualized assessment documented?
- If declining based on credit or background, is the FCRA adverse action notice drafted and ready?
- Is the rationale for the decision documented in language that is fair-housing safe?
If any of these fails, you see the flag before you ever see the screening summary. You can override Lena — you have the final call on every application — but you cannot do it accidentally.
One more thing
Fair housing law is state and local on top of federal. The above is federal-only. Your state and city may add categories or rules. When you set up your account, Lena loads your jurisdiction's specific overlay automatically.
And — the obvious one — none of this is legal advice. For actual disputes, talk to a fair housing attorney.