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Category: Enforcement


Familial Status Discrimination

Wednesday, November, 16th, 2022 at 8:34 pm by Richard S. Ekimoto, Esq.

What is Familial Status Discrimination? The Federal Fair Housing Act introduced “familial status discrimination” in 1988. Lawmakers chose to use the term “familial status discrimination” rather than the more easily understood term “discrimination against families with minor children”. Under the Federal Fair Housing Act, it is illegal to discriminate against families with minor children in housing.

What is a disability?

Wednesday, November, 16th, 2022 at 8:31 pm by Richard S. Ekimoto, Esq.

The Federal Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act provides protections for people with disabilities. The Fair Housing Act uses the term, “handicap” while the Americans with Disabilities Act uses the term, “disability” but they are defined the same. A person with a disability is someone who: (1) has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities (i.e., caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, breathing, etc.); (2) has [Read More...]

What is a reasonable modification?

Wednesday, November, 16th, 2022 at 8:24 pm by Richard S. Ekimoto, Esq.

The Federal Fair Housing Act “FHA” provides protections for people with disabilities. In addition to a prohibition against discriminating against someone because they are disabled, the FHA has two affirmative duties for those covered by the Act. One of them is to provide a reasonable accommodation. The other is that a housing provider must permit people with disabilities to make reasonable modifications to their dwelling or the common areas at the disabled person’s expense that are necessary for the disabled person to use [Read More...]

What is a reasonable accommodation?

Wednesday, November, 16th, 2022 at 8:24 pm by Richard S. Ekimoto, Esq.

The Federal Fair Housing Act “FHA” and the Americans with Disabilities Act “ADA” provides protections for people with disabilities. In addition to a prohibition against discriminating against someone because they are disabled, these laws have affirmative duties for those covered by the two Acts. Under the FHA, one of the affirmative duties is to permit reasonable modifications. In addition, a housing provider must make reasonable accommodations to its policies, practices or procedures if it is necessary for a disabled person to use or [Read More...]

Hawaii Supreme Court Upholds Right of Condominium Association to Vacate Residents for Maintenance

Wednesday, November, 16th, 2022 at 8:17 pm by Richard S. Ekimoto, Esq.

Most people involved with condominium associations understand that sometimes it is necessary to undertake repairs and maintenance of the common elements which might displace residents. For some reason, there have been a few recent instances where residents have challenged the right of an association to force the owners to vacate their units for this purpose. These cases have been complicated by the fact that very few condominium declarations and bylaws have provisions expressly authorizing the [Read More...]