LibGuides: Know Your Rights!: Homeowner's Rights

Defending Your Rights

Report Housing Discrimination

You can contact an agency funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the reporting of housing discrimination.

Local agency Locator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,

You can file an online complaint or contact your regional HUD office,

You may contact:

Florida Commission on Human Relations

1-800-342-8170, E-mail: chrinfo@fchr.myflorida.com

HUD Fair Housing Hotline

1-800-669-9777, e-mail: Fheowebmanager@hud.gov

Report Mortgage Relief Scams

If you think you've been the victim of foreclosure fraud, contact the Federal Trade Commission, your state Attorney General's office, or the Better Business Bureau.

Organizations that Help

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Mortgages
Whether you’re thinking of buying a home, already have a home loan, or are having trouble paying your mortgage, we have resources to help you every step of the way.
Florida Housing Finance Corporation
Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) was created by the state Legislature 35 years ago to assist in providing a range of affordable housing opportunities for residents that help make Florida communities great places in which to live, work and do business.
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that helps families build and improve places to call home. We believe affordable housing plays a critical role in strong and stable communities.
National Housing Law Project, NHLP
NHLP was founded in 1968 as part of the War on Poverty to serve as a support center for the newly created legal services agencies and to bolster their capacity on housing law.
US Department of Housing & Urban Development
Includes featured news, updates, and information on avoiding foreclosure, buying a home, home improvements, selling your home, information for senior citizens & veterans, and homelessness.

News Articles

Bloomberg: The Global Housing Market Is Broken, and It’s Dividing Entire Countries
The dream of owning a home is increasingly out of reach. Democratic and authoritarian governments alike are struggling with the consequences.
Forbes: A Look At Housing Inequality And Racism In The U.S.
Black households in the U.S. have a 44% rate of homeownership, some 30 percentage points behind their white counterparts
New York Times: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality
An enormous entitlement in the tax code props up home prices — and overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy and the upper middle class.
Reuters: How to handle a bidding war in a hot housing market
Over the last few years, if you were trying to buy a home in the United States, you were typically up against one other bidder for sales that closed.
Washington Post: For this millennial first-time buyer, the pandemic helped put homeownership in financial reach
Enforced savings during the pandemic — and good advice from mortgage loan officers — helped the single mother of two find a home she could afford, even in the hot real estate market of Las Vegas.

Your Mortgage & COVID-19

Fair Housing Act

History of Fair Housing
On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The 1968 Act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as amended) handicap and family status. Title VIII of the Act is also known as the Fair Housing Act (of 1968).
US Department of Housing & Urban Development: Fair Housing and Related Laws
Fair housing and related statutes, regulations, and executive orders.
Housing Discrimination under the Fair Housing Act
Housing discrimination is illegal in nearly all housing, including private housing, public housing, and housing that receives federal funding.
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH)
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) is a legal requirement that federal agencies and federal grantees further the purposes of the Fair Housing Act. This obligation to affirmatively further fair housing has been in the Fair Housing Act since 1968 (for further information see Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, 42 U.S.C. 3608 and Executive Order 12892).

Current Homeownership Rates

Housing and Discrimination

Florida Law Help: Are You a Victim of Housing Discrimination?
Fair Housing laws protect you from discrimination in housing. What is illegal discrimination in housing? When do these laws apply? What are some examples of housing discrimination? What should I do if I experience housing discrimination?
Federal Trade Commission: Mortgage Discrimination
Discriminating against someone who’s trying to get a mortgage loan is against the law. Know your rights and what to do if you suspect discrimination.

First Time Homeownership

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Buying a house: Tools and resources for Homebuyers
Choosing the right home loan is just as important as choosing the right home. Use our tools and resources to know what to expect—and what questions to ask—every step of the way.
USA.gov: Help Buying a New Home
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offers a variety of federal programs that may be able to help you purchase a home if you qualify for assistance.
Miami-Dade County: Affordable Homeownership Program
If you are looking for assistance in obtaining financing as a first-time homebuyer and you qualify under CDBG, HOME, SHIP or Surtax income guidelines, you may apply for a mortgage loan subsidy through the County's loan program.

The First-Time Homeowner's Survival Guide by Sid Davis
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9780814400586
Publication Date: 2007-07-11
Your home's electrical system -- Maintaining and fixing your home's plumbing system -- How to create great looking walls and ceilings -- Improvements that add value to your home -- Exterior maintenance and improvements that add value -- Your home's landscaping and curb appeal -- Hiring and working with contractors -- Tax aspects of owning a home -- Insurance matters for homeowners -- Avoiding the 10 most costly house problems.

Mortgage Related Scams: Protect Yourself

Federal Trade Commission: Mortgage Relief Scams
The possibility of losing your home to foreclosure can be terrifying. The reality that scam artists are preying on desperate homeowners is equally frightening. Many companies say they can get a change to your loan that will reduce your monthly mortgage payment or take other steps to save your home.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Mortgage Closing Scams, How to protect yourself and your closing funds
The FBI has reported that scammers are increasingly taking advantage of homebuyers during the closing process. Through a sophisticated phishing scam, they attempt to divert your closing costs and down payment into a fraudulent account by confirming or suggesting last-minute changes to your wiring instructions.

Home Owner Associations, HOAs

Homeowners Protection Bureau: Florida HOA Laws and Resources
State Laws Impacting Florida Associations.
Homeowners Protection Bureau: Understand How Federal Laws Affect HOA Functions
Homeowners associations are generally creatures of state law. State legislatures enact statutes authorizing HOA’s within a state, and, for the most part, state laws and regulations govern how they operate. But that doesn’t mean federal statutes don’t have an impact.

EBooks

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The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9781631492860
Publication Date: 2017-05-02
Widely heralded as a "masterful" (Washington Post) and "essential" (Slate) history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein's The Color of Law offers "the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation" (William Julius Wilson).
Homeowner's Rights by Mark Warda
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9781572483347
Publication Date: 2003-08-01
This book explains how to use that system to solve neighbor disputes. Besides neighbors, government employees can assault our castles. They can build airports and prisons next door, fine us for cutting down our own trees or changing our building without permission,and stop us from trying to earn a living from our living room. Your rights and remedies when dealing with government agents are also explained in this book.
A Neighborhood That Never Changes by Japonica Brown-Saracino
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9780226076638
Publication Date: 2010-02-01
Newcomers to older neighborhoods are usually perceived as destructive, tearing down everything that made the place special and attractive.
Private Property Rights by Paul Ruschmann; Maryanne Nasiatka; Alan Marzilli (Contribution by)
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9781438106151
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Provides divergent views on condemnation, land-use restrictions, zoning and other issues related to private property rights.
Supreme Neglect by Richard A. Epstein
Call Number: EBook
ISBN: 9780195304602
Publication Date: 2008-03-12
As far back as the Magna Carta in 1215, the right of private property was seen as a bulwark of the individual against the arbitrary power of the state. Indeed, common-law tradition holds that'property is the guardian of every other right.'And yet, for most of the last seventy years, property rights had few staunch supporters in America.

Relevant Articles

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New sources of housing market risk: Asset pricing for the US state‐level housing markets
This study develops three novel housing risk factors to explore the sources of risk in US state‐level housing markets.
2020.
Racial rent differences in U.S. housing markets: Evidence from the housing voucher program
This paper exploits an unusually rich data set to estimate racial differences in the rents paid for identical housing in the same neighborhood in U.S. housing markets and to show how they vary with neighborhood racial composition. Sept. 2019.
Homeownership among Young Americans: A Look at Student Loan Debt and Behavioral Factors.
A scholarly article by Jodi C. Letkiewicz & Stuart J. Heckman for the Journal of Consumer Affairs, March 2018.
Homeownership and the American Dream.
A scholarly article by Laurie S. Goodman and Christopher Mayer for the Journal of Economic Perspectives, February 2018.
Displacing Black People and Culture, Gentrification: The New 'Negro Removal' Program: A Call for an Emergency Summit
A scholarly article by Ron Daniels for the Journal of Pan African Studies, December 2018.