Practice of Real Estate: Disclosures, Fair Housing, and Antitrust
Fair housing
Federal law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity under current HUD interpretation), national origin, familial status, and disability. Utah's Fair Housing Act additionally protects sexual orientation and gender identity. Prohibited acts include refusing to rent or sell, offering different terms, discriminatory advertising, blockbusting, steering, redlining, and failing to allow reasonable accommodations or reasonable modifications at the tenant's expense. Some exemptions exist for certain owner-occupied buildings and rooms, but advertising is never exempt, and a licensee may not discriminate even when the client would be exempt.
Other disclosures
Licensees must disclose material facts, known latent defects, agency relationships, and any personal interest in the property. Utah residential sellers complete a seller's property condition disclosure; caveat emptor does not license a seller or an agent to lie or conceal. Federal lead-based paint disclosure applies to pre-1978 housing. Stigmatized property (a death on the premises, a former occupant with an illness) generally need not be disclosed, and a licensee should never volunteer protected-class information about neighbors.
Antitrust and ethics
Commission is negotiable and set between the broker and the client. Price fixing, group boycotts, market allocation, and tying arrangements violate the Sherman Act. RESPA prohibits kickbacks and unearned fees for settlement services.
Worked example. A buyer with a disability asks to keep a service dog in a no-pets building. Treat it as a reasonable accommodation request, not a pet request: no pet rent, no pet deposit, and no demand for the person's diagnosis.