FHA
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Weapons of Mass Confusion – meet the ADA and FHA.
The last ADA / FHA headline that reached my email in 2017 was about a woman in Florida who complained that her “service dog” was not allowed at the pool by her condominium association. It was not an unusual story, but it summed up the way the ADA and FHA, both individually and together have… Continue reading
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When does a mental impairment become a disability? Let the jury decide
When used in the context of a claim under the Fair Housing Act or Americans with Disabilities Act the words “disability” and “handicap” have specific legal meanings. Our last blog looked at a case, Houston v. DTN Operating,* discussing what a plaintiff must plead concerning her disability in a reasonable accommodation case. Today we’re looking another recent… Continue reading
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Emotional Support Animal scams – good news from the Eastern District of Texas
The October 17, 2017 decision by Judge Amos Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas in Houston v. DTN Operating Company et al., 2017 WL 4653246 (E.D.Tex 2017) is good news for landlords confronted by bogus internet diagnoses of disability. There is a vexing lack of authority concerning just what constitutes sufficient evidence of a disability… Continue reading
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Maybe a CO does mean something – rediscovering a safe harbor under the FHA.
In a March 27, 2017 ruling Judge Richard Leon of the D.C. Circuit found a safe harbor in the Fair Housing Act that I haven’t seen referred to in any earlier published opinion. See, U.S. v. Mid-America Apt. Communities, Inc., 2017 WL 1154944 (D.D.C. Mar. 27, 2017). In the defense of FHA design / build… Continue reading
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“Disability” and “Handicap” are not the same, and it matters
After reading a recent blog in which the author asserted that “handicap” under the Fair Housing Act had the same meaning as “disability” under the Americans with Disabilities Act I thought it would be useful to re-visit this question, which I last wrote about in 2014. There have been a few new decisions, none decisive,… Continue reading
