Fair Housing

Disputes over whether fences that violate restrictive covenants are a reasonable accommodation under the Fair Housing Act are often tricky for condominium and homeowners associations to navigate.  Requests for fences related to individuals with disabilities are becoming more common, as many HOA bylaws prohibit fences, only allow fences for pools, or limit the type of fence that can be installed…

Holiday displays are a frequent source of contention within community associations, often raising questions about how to regulate them fairly and uniformly. Courts have consistently emphasized that community associations can enforce reasonable restrictions on holiday decorations, provided these rules are neutral, uniformly applied, and focused on objective factors like time, location, and size. For example, in Osborne v Power, 319…

The Fair Housing Act (the “FHA”) prohibits housing discrimination because of an individual’s race, color, religion, sex (which includes both gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, familial status, or national origin. The most obvious form of housing discrimination is an action, omission, or policy that is intended to discriminate on the basis of one of these protected classes; however, after…

Michigan is now the 23rd state with a law that bars racial discrimination to include discrimination based on hair texture and hairstyles such as braids, locks and twists. Senate Bill 90, also known as the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair or CROWN Act updates the definition of race in the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to…