The statute of limitations for FHA design/build cases – a guide for the perplexed.

October 22, 2017 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, Statute of Limitations Tags: Fair Housing Act, FHA statute of limitations, Garcia v Brockaway, Havens Realty, Village of Olde St. Andrews

Maimonides, author of the Guide for the Perplexed.

The Fair Housing Act requires that private lawsuits brought under 42 U.S.C. §3613 be filed within two years “after the occurrence or the termination of an alleged discriminatory housing practice.” Courts are not in universal agreement about what this means when applied to a failure to design or build apartments according to the standards in 42 U.S.C. §36014(f)(3)(C), so a developer or owner’s defense in a design/build case may depend on where the apartments are located. How can a national statute have regional variations? Well, somebody’s wrong. Here’s a brief “guide for perplexed.”

Animal Accommodations under the FHA – Get it right the first time.

August 17, 2017 By Richard Hunt in FHA, FHA Emotional Support Animals, FHA Reasonable Accommodation, Landlord-tenant Tags: Emotional Support Animals, Fair Housing Act, HUD, Pit Bull, reasonable accommodation

A decision from the Western District of Texas should remind landlords that the world of FHA litigation is unforgiving and expensive, so the best thing is to get it right the first time. Reading it has prompted us to re-offer our webinar on dealing with accommodation requests involving animals later this month and next. Details appear at the end of this blog.

Chavez v Aber, 122 F.Supp.3d 581 (W.D. Tex. 2015) involved a child with a mixed breed pit-bull as an emotional support animal. There was no question about the child’s psychiatric disability or the fact that the child’s doctor recommended the dog for therapeutic purposes, so the only legal question was whether to dog had to be accommodated despite a “no pets” policy and the fact that pit-bulls are regarded as a dangerous breed. That did not mean the case was simple. As the court pointed out more than once, cases involving accommodation depend very much on the facts. More

Getting real – a step in the right direction for ADA claims

July 3, 2017 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA - drive-by litigation, ADA - serial litigation, FHA Tags: ADA Fairness, ADA pleading, Drive-by ADA Plaintiffs, FHA Pleading, serial litigation

The usual elements of a complaint filed under the FHA and ADA are:

A lengthy and unnecessary recital of the legislative history of the law, including all kinds of statements about the historical oppression of those with disabilities,
A broad allegation that the plaintiff visited the defendant’s location, without details that might make the claim verifiable, and
A series of broad statements about violations of the law that, once again, lack any detail that would make them verifiable.

Good news for those attacked by CityVision’s FHA complaints

January 16, 2017 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA FHA Litigation General, FHA, FHA Emotional Support Animals Tags: CityVision, dialing for dollars, Fair Housing Advocates, Gary Lacefield, Gratus Partners, Patrick Coleman

CityVision Services, a Texas based company in the business of filing HUD complaints, recently chose to withdraw a complaint rather than face investigation of its operations by HUD’s Region VII office. The details remain confidential (they involve one of our clients) but the broad picture of how this happened can help other victims of CityVision complaints deal with them.

In this particular case CityVision filed two complaints; one on behalf of an individual claiming disability discrimination and one on its own behalf. Like all the complaints CityVision files on its own behalf it contained a short and completely misleading statement of its history and operations. It claimed, for example, to have been established 23 years ago to file complaints on behalf of victims of discrimination, when in fact the present incarnation of CityVision was created in 2015 in order to file complaints on its own behalf. More

Dialing for Dollars – City Vision and Fair Housing Advocates seek greener pastures

December 13, 2016 By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, FHA, FHA Emotional Support Animals, FHA Reasonable Accommodation, Landlord-tenant Tags: City Vision, CityVision, dialing for dollars, Fair Housing Advocates, Gary Lacefield, Patrick Coleman

In the last several weeks we’ve gotten calls from attorneys and industry groups in several states about Patrick Coleman’s company, “Fair Housing Advocates,” filing significant numbers of HUD multiple complaints in Louisiana, Indiana and elsewhere. There is no easy way to know the full geographic extent of Fair Housing Advocates’ activities because the dialing for dollars business requires nothing but a phone, a list of apartment complexes, and a willingness to prevaricate about one’s motives and intent. City Vision Services, a related business, has also re-appeared with a complaint filed in Nebraska. More