A ruling was made in the Ninth Circuit (federal court) three weeks ago regarding roommate selection and whether it falls under the laws protecting against discrimination. The scenario in this case was that Roommate.com requires certain criteria be inputted by the person putting themselves/their property into the system and allows for those searching to select based on those same criteria, including race, sex, sexual preference, number of children, etc. The Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley brought suit against Roommate.com claiming that it was discriminatory for Roommate.com to require users to disclose certain preferences as that is discriminatory and that it is a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) and California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). The 9th Circuit ruled against the Fair Housing Council stating that a shared living situation does not fall within the definition of “dwelling” for either the FHA or FEHA and further that the 1st Amendment protects people’s freedom of association regarding a choice of roommate. This is good news for those who share or wish to share their living space but only under certain circumstances or with certain types/classes of people.
Although this does not generally affect buyers and sellers, the amount of leasing going on in our area has definitely increased and people who have never had a roommate before may be leery to have one without knowing that they can control who comes into their living space.
For further information, see Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommate.com __ F.3d __ , 2012 WL 310849, at p. 1 (9th Cir. 2012).
