Disabled Tenants Rights
The law gives disabled tenants special rights when it comes to housing. It prohibits certain forms of questioning from landlords, prohibits landlords from using certain types of medical history in evaluating a disabled tenant's application for housing and mandates that some modifications and accommodations be made to help disabled tenants.
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Disability Coverage
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Federal law determines what disabled persons are protected from housing discrimination by their landlords. The Fair Housing Act (FHA) and Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA) prohibit discrimination against disabled persons who possess a bodily or psychological disability that significantly impairs at least one chief life activity. For example, if a person were blind then they would be protected from housing discrimination by their landlords. Furthermore, the FHA and FHAA prohibit discrimination against persons who have had a history of possessing a bodily or psychological disability that significantly impairs at least one chief life activity and it prohibits discrimination against persons who others regard as having such disability.
Discriminatory Questions
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The law prohibits landlords from asking certain questions to disabled persons. A landlord cannot ask a potential tenant or tenant about an illness or disability, and also can't ask to look at medical records. The law considers such actions impermissibly discriminatory.
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Psychological Impairments
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The law limits a landlord's use of a tenant's psychological impairment (i.e. mental illness) in determining the tenant's eligibility for housing. The law prohibits landlords from using a person's psychological impairment as reason to reject or accept their application as a tenant. The landlord must evaluate the potential tenant's application on the basis of his past as a tenant and financial strength. A rejection is permitted only if the landlord can show specific events in which the applicant was dangerous to others.
Accommodations
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The law requires landlords to provide disabled tenants with reasonable accommodations. A legal duty imposes itself on landlord's to change rules, measures or services to deal with a disabled tenant's needs. For example, if the landlord has tenants who must use wheelchairs and the landlord's rented building has only stairs to reach the upper levels then the landlord may have to install elevators.
Modifications
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The law permits tenants to make reasonable modifications to their living units. If a tenant requests to a landlord's permission to modify their rented unit with payment to made out of the tenant's pocket the landlord must permit such a modification if it is reasonable. For example, if the tenant had limited use of his hands and wanted to install a special faucet and door handle and he requested permission from the landlord to have the tenant's agent install such devices then the landlord must accede to this request.
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