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Showing posts from May, 2013

Nobody wants to be sued!

Recently HUD issued a Final Ruling on disparate impact, which went into effect March 18, 2013. If you’re not sure what disparate impact is let’s start at the beginning... Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act-FHA in 1968 and revised it in 1988 "to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States ." The key provisions prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin in connection with residential real estate transactions. The courts have recognized two forms of discrimination. The first is Disparate Treatment. This is an intentional discriminatory act. The second is Disparate Impact. This is a practice that is seemingly neutral in its treatment of different groups but may result in one group of people being more harshly treated than another. HUD’s Final Ruling on disparate impact states that a practice is deemed to have a discriminatory effect “where it actually