Real Estate Exam [National] 61, Fair Housing Act Protected Classes Explained

0:00The Fair Housing Act of 1968 and its subsequent amendments are the backbone of the national portion of your real estate exam because they establish the seven federally protected classes that apply to almost every residential real estate transaction. You must know these seven classes by heart because exam questions will frequently try to slip in a non-protected class like marital status or age to confuse you. The original classes from the 1968 Act include race, color, religion, and national origin. It is important to distinguish between race and color for exam purposes because while they are related, they are legally distinct categories. Race refers to a person's physical characteristics or ancestral roots while color refers specifically to the pigmentation of someone's skin. In 1974, the class of sex was added to the list. Then the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 added the final two categories, which are

1:01familial status and disability. This timeline is often tested, so remember that familial status and disability were the most recent additions. When we talk about familial status, the exam is looking for your understanding of protections for families with children under the age of 18. This also extends to pregnant women and people in the process of gaining legal custody of a child. A common exam trap involves a landlord who advertises a unit as being for adults only, unless the property qualifies specifically as housing for older persons under very strict federal guidelines such as an 80% occupancy rate by those 55 or older. This is a violation of the Fair Housing Act. You might see a question where a landlord says they do not allow children because the unit is on a high floor with a dangerous balcony. Regardless of the landlord's intent or safety concerns, this is still illegal discrimination under familial status.

2:02Disability, which the law often refers to as handicap, covers both physical and mental impairments that substantially limit one or more major life activities. This includes people with HIV or AIDS and recovering alcoholics, though it does not protect current illegal drug users. On the exam, you will likely encounter questions about reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications. An accommodation is a change in rules or policies like allowing a service animal in a no-pets building. A modification is a physical change to the property, like installing a ramp. In most residential rentals, the tenant pays for these modifications and the landlord can require the tenant to restore the unit to its original condition upon moving out. A reliable mentee shortcut for the exam is the pneumonic acronym FreshCorn. The F stands for familial status, the R represents race, the S is for sex, the H stands for handicap or disability, the C is for color, the R stands for religion, the N represents

3:08national origin. If you see a class on the exam that does not fit into this acronym, such as marital status or sexual orientation, remember that while those may be protected in certain states, they are not part of the seven federal classes governed by the Fair Housing Act. Exam writers love to test what is not a protected class. Beyond high alert for mentions of marital status, age, or occupation. While these may be protected under the Equal Quetted Opportunity Act or by specific state laws, they are not federally protected under the Fair Housing Act. If a question asks which person is not protected under the Federal Fair Housing Act and lists a single woman, a social worker, and a person with a service dog, the social worker is the correct answer because occupation is not a protected class. Always look for the specific federal list when answering national portion questions and remember that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 provides an absolute protection against racial discrimination with no exceptions, whereas the Fair Housing Act does have limited exceptions for certain

4:13owner-occupied dwellings and private clubs.