HOA & GOVERNANCE
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A board in Florida capped occupancy at six people per townhome. The county code allowed more. A family with six children couldn't move in, and in October 2012 the Justice Department sued the association and its management company. Nobody on that board thought of the rule as discrimination. It was a number in a rulebook.
Most fair housing trouble starts that way. A policy sounds neutral in a meeting and lands unevenly in practice. The fair housing act guidelines that govern landlords also govern community associations, and the people writing the rules are usually volunteers who have never read 24 CFR Part 100. What follows is what the Act covers, where the lines sit, and where to take a complaint. It is not legal advice; every path here ends at HUD or a state agency.
Leevli EditorialLast updated 2026-09-17
The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3601 and following, prohibits discrimination on seven grounds: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability. HUD's framing of the coverage is broad. Discrimination "is illegal in nearly all housing, including private housing, public housing, and housing that receives federal funding," and the protection follows you through "renting or buying a home, getting a mortgage, seeking housing assistance, or engaging in other housing-related activities."
Two things people routinely get wrong. First, the federal list is a floor, not a ceiling. Many states and cities protect additional characteristics: source of income including housing vouchers, marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status. The lists vary considerably. HUD funds state and local agencies whose laws it has determined to be "substantially equivalent to the Fair Housing Act," and those laws may carry "additional protections" beyond the seven. A complaint that doesn't fit a federal category may still fit a state one.
Second, the Act reaches far past the landlord. DOJ's Civil Rights Division describes enforcement against "landlords, real estate companies, municipalities, lending institutions, and homeowners insurance companies."
The obvious cases are rare. Nobody writes "no children" on a listing anymore. What HUD and DOJ actually see looks more like this:
The harassment item catches boards and managers off guard most often. Under 24 CFR 100.7, a person can be directly liable for "failing to take prompt action to correct and end a discriminatory housing practice by a third-party, where the person knew or should have known of the discriminatory conduct and had the power to correct it." Liability turns on "the extent of the person's control." And the regulation closes the easy exit: fixing the problem "may not include any action that penalizes or harms the aggrieved person, such as eviction." A manager who knows one resident is harassing another cannot solve it by moving the target out.
Owners often assume the Act is a landlord-tenant statute. It isn't. HUD and DOJ's joint guidance on reasonable accommodations notes that courts have applied the Act to "homeowners and condominium associations." A board that adopts rules, approves modifications, controls common areas and enforces violations is doing the things the Act regulates.
In March 2020 the Justice Department sued the Dorchester Owners Association, a condominium association on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, alleging it denied residents' requests for accommodations to its no-pets policy and maintained policies excluding all assistance animals from common areas, barring visitors' assistance animals the association had not pre-qualified, and requiring residents with approved animals to carry $1 million insurance policies. DOJ alleged the pattern ran back to 2009.
Note what the association thought it was doing: managing liability and keeping common areas orderly. The rules were written down and applied to everyone. DOJ alleged they were unlawful anyway. If you're weighing whether a particular rule holds up at all, the broader test is in our piece on the limits of what an HOA can actually enforce, where federal preemption is one of several ways a rule fails.
This is the most common confusion in disability-related housing disputes, and the distinction is not cosmetic. It changes who pays.
A reasonable accommodation is, in HUD and DOJ's words, "a change, exception, or adjustment to a rule, policy, practice, or service" a person with a disability needs for equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. The regulation at 24 CFR 100.204 makes it "unlawful for any person to refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services, when such accommodations may be necessary to afford a handicapped person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling unit, including public and common use areas." Its own examples: a reserved parking space near the unit for a tenant with a mobility impairment, and a seeing eye dog in a building with a no-pets policy.
A reasonable modification is "a structural change made to existing premises, occupied or to be occupied by a person with a disability, in order to afford such person full enjoyment of the premises." Ramps, grab bars, widened doorways, a lowered counter. HUD and DOJ's guidance confirms these extend to "public and common use areas such as widening entrances to fitness centers or laundry rooms, or for changes to exteriors."
Providers may require the resident to "obtain any building permits needed to make the modifications, and that the work be performed in a workmanlike manner," but cannot dictate the contractor. Residents are "not responsible for expenses associated with reasonable wear and tear."
On verification, a provider may request "reliable disability-related information" establishing that the person meets the definition of disability, describing the accommodation and showing the connection between the two. That information can come from the individual, from proof of SSI or SSDI, or from a medical or service professional. HUD and DOJ are explicit that "detailed information about the nature of a person's disability is not necessary." A request can be denied where there is no disability-related need, where it imposes an undue financial and administrative burden judged case by case, or where it would fundamentally alter "the essential nature of a provider's operations." In that situation the provider should offer alternatives rather than simply refuse.
A physical change to a unit or exterior usually runs through architectural review as well, with submittals, response deadlines and appeals, which we cover in how architectural review committees handle modification requests.
For years HUD's operating guidance on assistance animals was FHEO Notice 2020-01, issued January 28, 2020. It has been dismantled in two steps. HUD withdrew the 2020 notice, with other FHEO guidance, effective September 17, 2025, stating the withdrawn materials "should not be relied upon as authoritative."
Then on May 22, 2026, HUD's Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity issued new enforcement guidance on animal-related accommodation requests. It adopts the ADA-style definition of a service animal, meaning one "individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability." It states that "the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship do not constitute work or tasks." FHEO says it "will find reasonable cause and recommend charges only for those cases involving animals trained to provide disability-related assistance," and that requests to waive pet policies for untrained emotional support animals are not presumptively reasonable. HUD added that it "intends to engage in notice and comment rulemaking" on the subject.
That document changes how HUD enforces. It does not amend the Fair Housing Act, and it does not amend 24 CFR 100.204. The regulation quoted above, seeing eye dog example and all, is still on the books. Private lawsuits under the Act still exist, and a number of states have their own assistance-animal statutes that operate independently of HUD's enforcement posture.
This is the area of fair housing law most likely to look different in twelve months. Before a board rewrites its pet policy or a resident submits a request, check HUD's current position and your state agency's, because the two may not align.
Familial status protects households with children under 18, people who are pregnant, and people in the process of securing legal custody. It is where well-meaning community rules go wrong most predictably: pool supervision requirements beyond what safety needs, curfews aimed at minors, bans on playing in common areas, and occupancy caps.
The Kings Lake case is the template. DOJ alleged the association limited a four-bedroom townhome to six occupants, a cap it described as "far more stringent than what Hillsborough County permitted," with similarly tight caps on smaller units, excluding a family with six minor children. If a community's occupancy limit is meaningfully tighter than the local housing code, that gap is where the exposure lives.
One narrow exemption exists: housing for older persons. Under 24 CFR Part 100, Subpart E, a community qualifies either as 62-and-older housing, where all new occupants must be 62 or over, or as 55-and-older housing. The 55-and-older route has three requirements that work together: at least 80 percent of occupied units occupied by at least one person aged 55 or older (§ 100.305); published policies and procedures the community adheres to, demonstrating intent to operate as older-persons housing (§ 100.306); and occupancy verification updated "at least once every two years" (§ 100.307) using licenses, birth certificates or signed affidavits. Calling yourself "adult living" does not do it. HUD says that phrasing "is not consistent with the intent."
Newer multifamily construction carries accessibility obligations that exist whether or not any current resident has a disability. DOJ summarizes the requirement for buildings with four or more units: accessible entrances and routes, usable doorways, controls in accessible locations, bathroom wall reinforcements for later grab bars, and kitchens and bathrooms with clear space for a wheelchair to maneuver. Design failures are their own category of fair housing case, and they attach to the design and construction parties, not only the current owner.
Filing with HUD is free and does not require a lawyer.
Check the deadline first. HUD's FHEO states that an allegation must be submitted "within one year of the last date of the alleged discrimination under the Fair Housing Act." Separately, you can bring a private federal lawsuit "within two (2) years of the most recent date of alleged discriminatory action," and HUD notes that time spent in its own processing does not count against that window.
How to file. HUD accepts reports online, by phone at 1-800-669-9777, by email and by mail, with relay service for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities. You'll give your name and address, the other party's, the address of the housing, what happened, and the dates.
What happens next. FHEO screens the allegation, drafts the formal complaint for your signature and notifies the other side. Some matters go to a state or local Fair Housing Assistance Program partner, because HUD refers complaints to substantially equivalent agencies "located where alleged discrimination occurred." Investigators gather documents, interview witnesses and may inspect the property, and throughout, HUD "will try to help the parties resolve the allegation through an agreement." At the end it determines whether there is reasonable cause to believe discrimination occurred.
Contact your state agency in parallel rather than instead. It may enforce protections the federal Act does not include, and it may run on a different clock. Documentation decides close cases: keep the written request, the denial, the dates, the rule as published, and the names of anyone treated differently under it.
If the dispute is a landlord ending a tenancy rather than a rule, the notice and grounds questions are in when a landlord can lawfully end a lease. And in income-restricted housing, program eligibility rules sit on top of fair housing law rather than replacing it.
If you're renting or buying, read the rules before you commit and look hard at the ones touching children, animals, guests and occupancy. Those four generate most complaints. A rule aimed at a category of person rather than a category of behavior is the one to ask about.
If you sit on a board, remember that the Dorchester complaint alleged a nine-year pattern that presumably began as a liability memo. Run new rules past fair housing counsel, document how accommodation requests are handled, and enforce consistently.
And the fastest way to learn whether a community applies its rules evenly is to ask the people living under them. Ask a resident what happened the last time someone requested an exception, then take the specifics to HUD or your state fair housing agency. They decide, and they cost nothing to call.
Rules are public. How a board applies them is not, and the people already living under them are the only ones who can describe it.
Listings show the property, but they rarely explain the lived reality around it. On Leevli, a mover can explore the city, review neighborhood and building information, and ask a verified resident the specific questions that remain unanswered. That human layer helps readers know what to investigate before signing a lease, making an offer, or choosing between two addresses.
Seven: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability. HUD describes the protection as covering nearly all housing, private and public, and as following you through renting, buying, getting a mortgage and seeking housing assistance. The federal list is a floor. Many states and cities add categories such as source of income, marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or military status, so check your state agency's list too.
The Act is not limited to landlord and tenant relationships. HUD and DOJ's joint guidance on reasonable accommodations notes that courts have applied the Act to homeowners and condominium associations. A board that adopts rules, approves modifications, controls common areas and enforces violations is doing the things the Act regulates. DOJ has sued associations directly, including a 2020 case over a condominium's assistance animal policies.
An accommodation is a change, exception or adjustment to a rule, policy, practice or service, such as waiving a no-pets rule for an assistance animal or assigning an accessible parking space. A modification is a structural change to the premises, such as a ramp or grab bars. The distinction matters because it usually decides who pays: the provider for accommodations, the resident for modifications.
Under the reasonable modification framework, the resident requesting the structural change generally bears the cost. The provider may require any needed building permits and workmanlike execution, but cannot pick the contractor. Interior changes may have to be restored at move out where that is reasonable and was requested; changes to exteriors and common use areas generally do not have to be undone. Residents are not responsible for ordinary wear and tear.
HUD's enforcement posture changed. Its May 22, 2026 guidance says FHEO will recommend charges only in cases involving animals trained to provide disability-related assistance, and that emotional support, comfort or companionship is not work or a task. That guidance did not amend the statute or 24 CFR 100.204, private lawsuits still exist, and some states have their own assistance animal laws. Check HUD's current position and your state agency before relying on either outcome.
HUD and DOJ describe reliable disability-related information establishing that the person meets the definition of disability, describing the requested accommodation and showing the connection between the two. That can come from the individual, from proof of SSI or SSDI, or from a medical or service professional. The joint statement is explicit that detailed information about the nature of a person's disability is not necessary.
Filing is free and you do not need a lawyer. HUD accepts reports online, by phone at 1-800-669-9777, by email and by mail, with relay service for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities. You give your name and address, the other party's, the address of the housing, what happened and the dates. FHEO screens the allegation, drafts a formal complaint for your signature and notifies the other side.
HUD's FHEO says an allegation must be submitted within one year of the last date of the alleged discrimination. A private federal lawsuit runs on a separate two-year clock from the most recent alleged discriminatory act, and HUD notes that time spent in its own processing does not count against that window. State agencies may run on different deadlines, which is a reason to contact yours in parallel rather than later.
Familial status covers households with children under 18, pregnant people and those securing legal custody, and it is where community rules fail most predictably. DOJ's Kings Lake complaint alleged an occupancy cap far more stringent than what the county permitted, which excluded a family with six children. If a rule on occupancy, pool supervision, curfews or play areas is tighter than local code or aimed at minors, raise it with HUD or your state agency.
Under 24 CFR Part 100, Subpart E, the 55 and older route requires three things together: at least 80 percent of occupied units occupied by someone 55 or older, published policies and procedures the community actually follows demonstrating intent to operate as older persons housing, and occupancy verification updated at least once every two years. A separate 62 and older category requires all new occupants to be 62 or over. Labeling a community adult living does not qualify it.
Editorial review: verify current federal and state law, insurance regulations, HOA and condominium statutes, and lender guidelines before relying on any single claim. This article is informational and does not constitute legal, financial, tax or insurance advice.
