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A fair housing myth: You have to treat everyone the same to comply with fair housing law. It’s a common belief, but it’s not as simple as that. The law requires that you give everyone an equal opportunity to live at your community—not that you treat everyone the same.

It’s often true that treating everyone the same helps to counter any perception of discriminatory motives, but there are many important exceptions that you must understand and apply properly to comply with fair housing law. Because of these exceptions, having a one-size-fits-all policy can sometimes hurt you rather than help you to avoid fair housing trouble.

Chief among the exceptions are disability-related requests for reasonable accommodations, which by definition involve exceptions to your general policies, procedures, or rules when necessary to enable an individual with a disability an equal opportunity to live in and enjoy housing at your community. Disputes over reasonable accommodation requests, often involving assistance animals or parking accommodations, are the number one reason why communities find themselves on the hot seat to defend themselves from accusations of housing discrimination.