By Winta Mengisteab, ESQ.
By Joseph Shannon, ESQ.
Winta has been with Rees Broome, PC, since December 2006, and has focused her career on community association law. She is licensed to practice in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and serves numerous condominium and homeowners associations in the tri-state area. Winta has been a member of WMCCAI since 2006.
Joseph recently served as an appointed member of the Board of Zoning Appeals for the City of Fairfax and his clients include condominiums and homeowners’ associations, landlords/tenants, real estate purchasers/sellers and creditors. Prior to joining Rees Broome, Joseph gained extensive experience representing mortgage lenders and trustees involved in Virginia foreclosures.
y d o b y r Eve l o o P in the ions
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t’s that time of year and pool season is upon us. As you prepare your swimming pool facilities to open for the summer, we remind you to also review your pool rules and regulations. While it is necessary to establish pool safety rules, boards must be careful not to draft such rules in a manner that may violate the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 and its amendments (“FHA”), which prohibit housing providers from discriminating in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling or in the provision of services in connection therewith on the basis of a protected class. This article will cover some obvious and some not so obvious potential pitfalls that boards should avoid when drafting/revising their pool safety rules.
Protected Classes First, we will generally address the protected classes under the FHA. The current protected classes are limited to race, color, national origin, gender, religion, handicap and familial status. Most of the categories are 12 | QUORUM
self-explanatory, but we will briefly explain “handicap” and “familial status”. For purposes of the FHA, a handicap is a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of a person’s major life activities, or a record of having such impairment, or being regarded as having such impairment. For illustrative purposes, and by no means an exhaustive list, such disabilities include heart disease, speech and hearing impairments, multiple sclerosis, cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, alcoholism, arthritis, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and autism. The FHA’s “familial status” class protects households with children under 18 and pregnant women. Please note that while these are the only federally protected classes, there may be additional protected classes in your jurisdiction (state and/or locality). For example:
• The Virginia Fair Housing Law includes “elderliness”, which applies to those who are 55 and over, as a protected class, and on April 11, 2020, the Virginia Values Act was signed into law, prohibiting housing discrimination based on one’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or status as a veteran. • The Arlington County Human Rights Ordinance also prohibits discrimination because of a person’s sexual orientation. • Maryland’s fair housing laws expands the protected classes to include marital status, gender identification, and sexual orientation. • And, the DC Human Rights Act, which prohibits housing discrimination, has a list of 18 protected “traits”, which includes sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, political affiliation, and source of income to name a few. Therefore, it is important that you are aware of all the protected classes in your jurisdiction.
