Metro Apartment Manager (PDF), April 2006

Q: We’re considering prohibiting smoking in our small plex because we think it will improve the quality of tenants we get. Is that legal?

A: Fair housing laws protect people who belong to protected classes. That means you can’t say you rent to them because they are members of a protected class. Of course, all of us belong to protected classes: we all are one sex or another (or… but that’s for another column), one race or another (or more than one), one religion or another (or none).

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