I would prefer to rent to adults only. The last tenant’s children caused a lot of problems with my other tenants regarding noise and use of the common areas.
A landlord should be well aware of the protections afforded by the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the prohibitions against any form of discrimination of protected classes under the FHA.
A landlord cannot deny housing opportunity to families with children. By outright refusal to rent to families with children, such as an “Adults Only policy”, or by imposing special or arbitrary restrictions and requirements for applicants or tenants with children, a landlord violates the familial status provisions of the Fair Housing Act.
The protections afforded under familial status are broad-based protections. Familial status protection applies to a family household where a child or children under the age 18 live with an adult who has legal custody of the child or children. The custodial adult may be a biological parent, a step-parent, grandparent, foster parent, or other designated adult as granted by written permission from the parent or legal custodian of the child or children. The household is qualified for familial status protection against housing discrimination.
The status of the adult member (s) of a qualified household, i.e., married, single, divorced, separated, or widowed, is not material to familial status protections. A landlord cannot impose status restrictions or place requirements on adult members as a condition of tenancy. It is illegal for a landlord to treat an individual or individuals of any status who have legal custody of a child in a different manner than the landlord would treat an individual or individuals without a child.
Familial status protection is afforded to households with at least one child under the age of 18 living with adult members with legal or designated custody. Protection continues for the household until the youngest child turns 18. An individual who is 18 years old or older is considered an adult. If there are no qualifying children under the age of 18, a family living with adult children cannot be afforded familial status protection.
The familial protection status applies to an applicant or tenant who is pregnant or in the process of adopting a child if the household intends the child to become part of the household. A landlord cannot discourage renting to families with children by using restrictive policies such as:
- limiting families to a designated section or building on the rental property,
- requiring higher rent or larger security deposits,
- limiting the number of occupants for the unit, making special rules and regulations applicable to children only, such as property access restrictions or unsupervised use of amenities,
- using more restrictive standards to control noise or behaviors by children, and
- imposing different limitations and conditions for families by citing health regulations.