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Can A Property Owner Legally Reject a Rental Applicant Because They Have AIDS/HIV?

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Communicable diseases have been making headlines recently, between the growing Ebola scare and the rapid spread of enterovirus D68. When you learn that someone who lives near you or with whom you may come in contact has a communicable disease, it’s only natural to get concerned and want to follow precautions to prevent getting infected.

Given this legitimate concern, do tenants have the right to live in an apartment building free of neighbors who have HIV/AIDS? Are landlords legally or morally obligated to turn away applicants who have HIV/AIDS to protect tenants and shield themselves from liability?

The answer to both questions is no. On the contrary, tenants have the right to live in an apartment building without regard to the fact that they have HIV/AIDS. Plus, landlords who turn away applicants because they HIV/AIDS invite liability because they are violating federal housing discrimination laws.

If you’re not sure how this can be true, consider these two realities:

  1. HIV/AIDS isn’t spread through the air or by casual contact. There’s no denying that AIDS and HIV, the virus that causes it, are very serious and that you should do what you can to avoid getting infected. In the United States alone, roughly 635,000 people have died from AIDS since it was first discovered in the early 1980s and some 50,000 people get infected with HIV every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Although scientists have learned a great deal about HIV/AIDS over the last few decades, misinformation persists and is often disseminated by public figures. Just last week, for example, televangelist Pat Robertson told The 700 Club viewers that people who visit Kenya should worry more about contracting AIDS than Ebola and suggested that AIDS can be spread through casual contact. “You’ve got to be careful… I mean, the towels could have AIDS,” he cautioned, earning him the spotlight on Anderson Cooper’s RidicuList. But HIV/AIDS isn’t spread by casual contact or even through the air, and so tenants needn’t fear contracting HIV/AIDS if they discover that someone in their building has it.

  2. HIV/AIDS is considered a disability under federal law. The Fair Housing Act (FHA) protects prospects and tenants against housing discrimination across the United States based on seven protected classes, including disability. The FHA defines disability as any “physical or mental impairment” that “substantially limits” one or more “major life activities,” which includes HIV/AIDS. (Check out the Nolo article, “Who’s Protected Against Disability Discrimination?” for more information.) This means that landlords can’t refuse to rent to applicants or offer them an apartment on different terms simply because they have HIV/AIDS.