Are "roommates" a protected class?

Question

I have a question regarding the Fair Housing Act's Familial Status.

The intent is to prevent anyone from refusing to rent to or give preferences to people based on their family status...single vs married, with or without children etc...

Familial status covers:

• families with children under the age of 18,
• pregnant persons, and
• any person in the process of securing legal custody of a minor child (including adoptive or foster parents).
• persons with written permission of the parent or legal guardian

Where do roommates factor into all these?

Example, you are renting a two or three bedroom property. Tenants can be married with or without children, unmarried couples, or friends, I don't have any preferences, nor should I.

However, I am seeing more and more people who want to rent together but they do not know each other. In other words, they met through social media, may be Jill wants to rent a 3 bedroom house and posted that on Facebook, and Laura and Julian responded. So Jill contacted me and says she and two friends want to rent my house and set up a viewing. At the viewing they call came in different cars, I can tell they do not know each other because they greeted each other with "you must be Laura" and "hi I am Julian". So basically you are renting to three strangers who have never met each other.

This creates a few problems. I went through this twice...because they do not know each other, they do not trust each other, so the first thing they want are interior doors with dead bolts. Next is instead of one point of contact for "rent" and maintenance, they soon all want to be individually notified for everything, or they no longer want to be collectively responsible for damages and fees, even though my leases specifically stated I don't care who breaks a window, everyone on the lease is responsible. Of course then one person wants to leave before the lease ends but the other two want to stay, which again, not my problem because the three collectively signed a lease.

Bottom line is renting to roommates who are complete strangers to each other, is exactly like student rentals.

Is it legal to avoid such arrangements? Is it a violation of FHA? I am not even sure I can easily tell if they make an effort to hide this from me.

I guess I am just ranting.

Will Gaston · Answer

@Sam Leon I'm not sure if this 100% answers your question, but many cities (especially near colleges) have an ordinance limiting the maximum number of unrelated persons.

In Columbia, South Carolina that number is 3. The current Governor for the state went to the state Supreme Court over this. And lost.

https://stromlaw.com/s-c-supreme-court-upholds-ordinance-all...

So, in Columbia, even if you wanted to rent to 4 roommates, it would not be allowed.

Colleen F. · Answer

@Sam Leon theoretically it could be considered a family status to be single people but so many towns have passed unrelated person ordinances I wouldn't worry about it. No judge is going to support them. Fair housing doesn't protect single people. I have restricted the number of cars to deal with this for one house since I got so many roommate situations. You can also look at residential history together.

Janice R. · Answer

This is a interesting question! From my research, the FHA law on familial status protects adults living with children under 18 years of age only - see

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/whos-protected-again...

Henry T. · Answer

all applicants must have a two year history of living together. All applicants must pass screening. No changes to the building are allowed. One vehicle is allowed on the property and must be licensed/operational. No subletting. etc. If you have less than 3 units or less "fair housing" does not apply.

Janice R. · Answer

I agree, except --

"If you selected a married couple over an unmarried couple, it's a violation."

Selecting a married couple over an unmarried couple is not a FHA violation of "familial status"
because, it only includes protection for people with children under the age of 18 or pregnant women -- the statute doesn't cover marital status. However, states or local laws may protect marital status.

About asking the relationship: at the showing, I ask them how they are "connected". My experience is that applicants are happy to give you the whole story because it helps their application. And if they do not want to tell you, hard pass. Of course, I don't mind if my tenant(s) are married, divorced, partners, single, with children or not - I have had all of them. But I wouldn't want casual, random roommates.

Peter W. · Answer

My understanding is they are not a protected class, but you have to be careful it’s not based on familial status.

There are local laws you need to be aware of. In NY State we have several laws which protect a tenants ability to have roommates. This includes tenants having the right to sublet provided the new tenants meet my screening criteria. They are also allowed to have one other adult live with them no questions asked. I don’t know what they are for FL, but I bet they are more landlord friendly.

Sandra Morrison · Answer

@Sam Leon

I do have student rentals and sometimes they are strangers but generally some might know each other or know if each other before the move-in. I don’t want to be in the roommate-finding business so I let them sublet to the person they find to take over the lease/sublet for co-ops/internships. There are locks on bedroom doors under the past landlords but we haven’t had many requests for the keys to individual locks perhaps because they don’t own much of value.

Generally, everyone is under 22 but I can see how dealing with actual adults that are strangers would be more problematic. I am interested to see what you find out.

Scott Trench · Answer

Interesting - there's the law, and there's "best practice" - I don't think there is a law saying that you can or can't deny people based on whether they previously know one another. Maybe a lawyer can answer that question, and it might be state specific.

But, best practice is to simply always accept the first qualified applicant. Set a high bar and rent to the first person to clear it, and you avoid most of your problems with screening.

I literally live next door in a house-hack to five unrelated individuals who are on a single lease. They are some of my best tenants, friendly, take great care of the place, and reach out when there is a legitimate problem I want to know about.

Regardless, if you proceed with multiple tenants, make sure that they know, before, during, and after lease signing, that they are jointly and severally liable for the rent and terms of the lease. That means if one party flakes out on the other, the remaining party is still responsible for 100% of the rent and/or damages. This is true regardless of their relationship status prior to entering into the lease.

Are "roommates" a protected class?

Are "roommates" a protected class?

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