Avoid fair housing violations by understanding the common mistakes landlords make when renting to families with children.
Even if you’d prefer not to rent your property to families with children, as a landlord you must follow fair housing laws. Families with children are a protected class, called “familial status,” under the Federal Fair Housing Act . Refusing to rent a house or apartment to a family with children — or requiring different rental terms for them — is a violation of federal law.
When a family with children submits a rental application, you must use the same screening criteria and give them the same fair, unbiased opportunity to rent the home as any other applicant. If you receive a fair housing complaint, it can be challenging and expensive to resolve. Your best course of action is being informed to ensure you stay compliant.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when renting to families with children:
As a property owner you have flexibility when establishing tenant criteria and policies for your rental, but they must all be compliant with the federal Fair Housing Act. This act prevents discrimination based on factors such as race, disability, religion, sex and familial status — which protects children and makes discrimination against families with children in the sale, rental and financing of housing unlawful.
Even if an applicant has kids (defined as anyone under the age of 18), they are allowed to apply for your rental property, and you must use the same screening criteria for them as with every other applicant.
Rules about occupancy limits in rentals aren’t set in stone, but the general guidance is two people per bedroom. In your rental listing and your lease agreement , you can limit the number of persons who can live in your apartment, as long as you don’t specify how many of the persons can be children.
Keep in mind that if your rooms are particularly large, or if there’s a bonus room like a den, then tenants can make a case that additional occupants, including children, can comfortably live there. Note that infants under the age of one are not counted as occupants.
Whatever monetary amounts you’ve stated in your rental listing and application form must be the same for all applicants. And although it’s OK to charge an extra pet deposit , you can’t charge extra because an applicant has children.
There are many rules you can set to keep your rental safe and habitable for all tenants that also protect your property. For example, you can define quiet hours for your property, as long as you enforce them equally for all tenants. You can’t, however, single out children in your property rules. Even if the rule does not explicitly mention children but is clearly directed toward a certain age group — such as, “No playing in the hallway” — you can be in violation of fair housing laws.
You can make rules to protect the safety of children and other residents. If you have a pool, you can state that children under a certain age must be supervised by a responsible adult while in the pool area, but you can’t restrict kids from using the pool. You can also make rules about which areas on the property can be used for riding bikes, scooters and skateboards if the rule is applied consistently to both children and adults.
Even if you think you’re doing your prospective renters a favor, you can’t point families with children to apartments you think are more “kid friendly” than others. For example, if you recommend specific apartments because they’re better for kids (say, only bottom-floor apartments), you are exercising discrimination. Offer each applicant the opportunity to choose from any of the available units they qualify for.
What might seem like good intention can easily become one of the most common landlord mistakes. Know the laws, both federal and local, to stay compliant and keep your rental business running smoothly.
