jump to navigation

To Landlords and sellers in City of Seattle - new rules w/ fines… Get up to speed! January 31, 2007

Important Fair Housing Notice for Seattle

The City of Seattle has recently adopted a new ordinance that requires all real estate professionals (including brokers and property managers) within the city limits to prominently display a fair housing poster in their place of business. The poster is available at http://www.seattle.gov/civilrights/outreach.htm under the link for “Housing Issues.” The new posting rule takes effect January 31, 2007, and failure to post can result in a monetary fine of up to $500. If you have questions, please contact Elliot Bronstein, Seattle Office for Civil Rights, at 206-684-4507 or by email at elliott.bronstein@seattle.gov.

First, let me state that I am a BIG believer in Fair Housing and all that it stands for. As an agent I have unfortunately seen more than I care to of people still showing discrimination when it comes to property sales and rentals. It disgusts me. And, while I know that I uphold the law in this area there are plenty of those who don’t and now the City of Seattle has decided we need to provide more readily apparent documentation of the requirement for Fair Housing. In some ways this is good as a reminder to everyone about the law but there are definitely some stiff penalties that come with it.

Starting today this new rule goes into effect in the City of Seattle. The links in the details above (1st paragraph) will take you to the City of Seattle site and you’ll want to scroll down to the Housing Issues section to find the PDF poster you can use. There has been ongoing ambiguity about the placement of these posters - the rules say to post the sign at places of business but does it mean the rental, house for sale, office of the agent, or the owner of the property? The local Rental Housing Association of which I am a member helped fight what they could about this new ruling - about the only thing they were able to do though was to push out when it took effect (it was supposed to be last year) and they got the first fine dropped from $500 to $125 but each subsequent day of non-compliance is $500 per day. A pretty hefty fine so pay attention here!

I can say that Team Reba will plan on having signs in each of the properties that we sell in the City of Seattle - just to be sure. We’ll also make sure to notify our clients of the new rules. For those that live near Seattle and who own rental property it will be good for you to know too as this kind of rule could be imposed in your town. Get organized and consider joining organizations like Rental Housing Association http://www.RHA-PS.org if you want to have a stronger say in local rulings. In the meantime though, don’t forget to put up your poster. I would guess that this applies to all active listings that are currently outstanding in the city.

Check out these related posts:

Article Tags>> | | | | | |

Comments»

1. Phil Hoover - January 31, 2007

Absolutely absurd.
Fair Housing cannot be achieved by heavy-handed enforcement by governmental agencies.
Fairness must come for the heart.

2. Jillayne Schlicke - January 31, 2007

Hey Phil,

How are things in Boise?

Yeah, I know it might sound kind-of heavy handed. Here in WA, we just passed a state rule that adds sexual orientation as a protected class. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page for the easy matrix:

http://www.hum.wa.gov/

The other day, I had two students in one of my classes who rolled their eyes and made disgusting noises when sexual orientation as a protected class came up during our talk on Fair Housing.

There are all kinds of variables in a person’s life that affect a person’s actions. For example:
Family
Religion or a choice to be non-religious
culture
school
larger community
socio-econ status
gender and cultural influence on gender
and so on…

What I’m trying to say is, we all have a different “heart.” Some folks do not need a law to do what Fair Housing requires, as you pointed out.

Our Human Rights office continues to see an increase in Fair Housing violations in the practice of real estate, sounds like it is mostly tenant-related towards people with disabilities, hence the harsher rules.

We all have different “hearts” so justice tries to bring some balance into the world.
:)

3. Jay Matthews - February 1, 2007

Jillayne,

Your response was poignant - and left me at a loss for words…well, for a moment. :)

This discussion gets at the core elements of civil rights struggles globally - not just here in Seattle.

On one level, I absolutely agree with Phil. It *is* absurd that legislation must be enacted to help see that everyone is treated with basic human decency. But I also know that Phil lives in a state where the majority of voters do not recognize the inherent worth of every human being.

So Phil, as Jillyane said, this is why - today - legislation like this must exist. I’d like to think that in a not-to-distant tomorrow, every single person will wake up and realize that we’re all really more alike than different.