Fair Housing Law Prohibits The Following Practices:  

1.  To refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, handicap, familial status, disability, national origin, income source, age, sexual orientation or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community. 

2.  To discriminate against any person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities in the connection therewith to any person because of race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, handicap, familial status, disability, national origin, income source, age, sexual orientation or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community.

3.  To make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, handicap, familial status, disability, national origin, income source, age, sexual orientation or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community. or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community. The use of words or symbols associated with a particular religion, national origin, sex or race shall be prima facie evidence of an illegal preference under this chapter which shall not be overcome by a general disclaimer; 

4.  To represent to any person because of race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, handicap, familial status, disability, national origin, income source, age, sexual orientation or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community that any dwelling is not available for inspection, sale, or rental when such dwelling is in fact so available; 

5.  To deny any person access to membership in or participation in any multiple listing service, real estate brokers' organization, or other service, organization or facility relating to the business of selling or renting dwellings, or to discriminate against such person in the terms or conditions of such access, membership, or participation because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status, or handicap; 

6.  To include in any transfer, sale rental, or lease of housing, any restrictive covenant that discriminates because of race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, handicap, familial status, disability, national origin, income source, age, sexual orientation or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community.  or for any person to honor or exercise, or attempt to honor or exercise any such discriminatory covenant pertaining to housing; 

7.  To induce or attempt to induce to sell or rent any dwelling by representations regarding the entry or prospective entry into the neighborhood of a person or persons of a particular race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, handicap, familial status, disability, national origin, income source, age, sexual orientation or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community. 

I.  Virginia’s Fair Housing regulations list additional actions that are prohibited. Some of the actions that the regulations prohibit on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, handicap, familial status, disability, national origin, income source, age, sexual orientation or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community include:

1. Mailing or delaying maintenance or repairs of sales or rental dwellings;

2. Limiting the use of privileges, services or facilities associated with a dwelling;

3. Discouraging the purchase or rental of a dwelling or exaggerating drawbacks or failing to inform any person of desirable features of a dwelling or a community, neighborhood, or development;

4. Communicating to any prospective purchaser that they would not be comfortable or compatible with existing residents of a community neighborhood or development;

5. Assigning any person to a particular section of a community neighborhood or development or to a particular floor or section of a building;

6. Denying or limiting services or facilities in connection with the sale or rental of a dwelling, because a person failed or refused to provide sexual favors.

II.  Virginia’s Fair Housing Law applies to property managers, owners, landlords, real estate agents, banks, savings institutions, credit unions, insurance companies, mortgage lenders and appraisers. If you’re working with a property manager or real estate agent to buy a home or locate a rental or if you’re trying to get a mortgage or homeowner’s insurance you cannot be treated differently because of your the race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, handicap, familial status, disability, national origin, income source, age, sexual orientation or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community.

III.  Again Virginia’s Fair Housing regulations list actions that are prohibited on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, handicap, familial status, disability, national origin, income source, age, sexual orientation or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community. These include but are not limited to:

1. Failing to accept, consider, negotiate, process or accurately communicate a bona fide offer:

2. Imposing different sales prices or rental charges for the sale or rental of a dwelling upon person;

3. Using different qualification criteria or applications, or sales or rental standards or procedures, such as income standards, application requirements, application fees, credit analysis, or sales or rental approval procedures or other requirements;

4. Denying or delaying the processing of an application made by a purchaser or renter or refusing to approve such a person for occupancy in a cooperative or condominium;

5. Employing codes or other devices to segregate or reject applicants, purchasers, or renters, refusing to take or to show listings of dwellings in certain areas because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, elderliness or national origin or refusing to deal with certain brokers or agents because they or one of their clients are of a particular race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, elderliness or national origin;

6. Indicating through words or conduct that a dwelling, which is available for inspection, sale or rental, has been sold or rented;

7. Refusing to provide municipal services or property or hazard insurance for dwellings or providing such services differently;

8. Threatening, intimidating or interfering with persons in their enjoyment of a dwelling;

9. Intimidating or threatening any person because that person is engaged in activities designed to make other persons aware of or encouraging such other persons to exercise rights granted or protected by this part;

10. Retaliating against any person because that person has made a complaint, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in a proceeding under the fair housing law.

IV.  Virginia’s Fair Housing Law also applies to advertising. In this regard Virginia’s Fair Housing regulations prohibit:

1. Using words, phrases, photographs, illustrations, symbols, or forms which convey that dwellings are available or are not available to a particular group because of race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, handicap, familial status, disability, national origin, income source, age, sexual orientation or status as a veteran of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community;
   

2. Selective geographic advertisements. Such selective use may involve the strategic placement of billboards; brochure advertisements distributed within a limited geographic area by hand or in the mail; advertising in particular geographic coverage editions of major metropolitan newspapers or in newspapers of limited circulation which are mainly advertising vehicles for reaching a particular segment of the community; or displays or announcements available only in selected sales offices;
   

3. Selective use of human models when using an advertising campaign. Selective advertising may involve an advertising campaign using human models primarily in media that cater to one racial or national origin segment of the population without a complementary advertising campaign that is directed at other groups. Another example may involve use of racially mixed models by a developer to advertise one development and not others. Similar care must be exercised in advertising in publications or other media directed at one particular sex, or at persons without children. Such selective advertising may involve the use of human models of members of only one sex, or of adults only in displays, photographs, or drawings to indicate preferences for one sex or the other, or for adults to the exclusion of children.

If models are use in display advertising campaigns, the models should be clearly definable as reasonably representing majority and minority groups in the metropolitan area, both sexes and when appropriate, families with children. Models, if used, should portray persons in equal settings and indicate to the general public that the housing is open to all without regard to race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, elderliness or national origin;

4. Publisher’s notice. All publishers should publish at the beginning of the real estate advertising section a notice such as that appearing in Table III, Appendix I, to Part 109, 24 CFR, Ch. 1 (4-1-89 edition). The notice may include a statement regarding the coverage of any local fair housing or human rights ordinance prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental or financing of dwellings.
   top of page

Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity