2.4 Massachusetts Fair Housing

Federal Floor, Massachusetts Ceiling

The federal Fair Housing Act sets a national minimum of seven protected classes: race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation per current HUD interpretation), familial status (families with children), and disability. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 151B builds well above that floor.

Massachusetts adds the following classes

Trap: On the exam, if an answer choice is a class Massachusetts protects but federal law does not, the most-tested example is source of income. Refusing "no Section 8" tenants is the textbook MA-only violation.

Prohibited Practices

Fair-housing law bans more than an outright "no." Tested practices include steering (directing buyers toward or away from neighborhoods based on a protected class), blockbusting (inducing panic selling by suggesting a protected group is moving in), redlining (denying loans or insurance by area), and discriminatory advertising ("adults preferred," "ideal for a Christian family"). All of these violate Chapter 151B even if no one is ultimately turned away.

Agents must also watch their language with well-meaning buyers. Answering "Is this a good area for a family like mine?" by describing the racial or religious makeup of a neighborhood is steering, even when the buyer asked first. The correct response is to give objective resources (school data, crime statistics from public sources, town websites) and let the buyer evaluate. Massachusetts also bars discrimination in the terms of a rental or sale, requiring a larger deposit, different lease conditions, or extra fees from a protected-class applicant is just as illegal as refusing them outright.

Source-of-Income Protection

Massachusetts is emphatic that a landlord or agent may not refuse, set different terms, or advertise against a tenant because of the source of their lawful rent payment. Protected sources include housing choice (Section 8) vouchers, public assistance such as TANF, Social Security and SSDI, veterans' benefits, child support, and alimony. A "no vouchers" or "no programs" policy is illegal on its face.

MCAD Enforcement and the 300-Day Window

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) investigates and prosecutes Chapter 151B housing complaints. A complaint must be filed within 300 days of the discriminatory act (M.G.L. c. 151B, sec. 5). Compare that to one year for federal HUD complaints and roughly two years for a federal court suit, candidates must keep the three deadlines straight.

The MCAD process runs: file complaint, investigation, probable cause determination, conciliation (settlement attempt), and if unresolved, a public hearing before a hearing officer, with remedies that can include damages, civil penalties, and injunctive relief.

The Licensee No-Exemption Rule

Federal law and Chapter 151B contain narrow exemptions, for example, an owner renting in an owner-occupied two-family, certain owner-occupied lodging, religious organizations housing members, and bona fide 55+ senior housing. A real estate licensee can never rely on those exemptions. If a licensee is involved in the transaction, the full anti-discrimination law applies even when the individual owner would have been exempt.

Worked scenario: An owner of a three-family with no on-site residence tells the listing agent, "Don't show it to voucher holders." The agent must refuse the instruction. Following it would be illegal source-of-income discrimination, and the licensee cannot hide behind any owner exemption because no exemption covers a licensee-assisted three-family.

Disability and Reasonable Accommodation

Chapter 151B, like the federal law, requires housing providers to make reasonable accommodations in rules and policies and to permit reasonable modifications of the premises for tenants with disabilities. A "no pets" policy must yield to a tenant's service or assistance animal, and the landlord may not charge a pet fee for it. The tenant generally pays for physical modifications in private housing, but the landlord cannot forbid them when needed for access. Agents should never ask about the nature or severity of a disability; they may only confirm that an accommodation request is disability-related when it is not obvious.

Putting It Together for the Exam

The highest-yield Massachusetts fair-housing facts cluster around three ideas: (1) the state list is longer than the federal seven, with source of income the signature addition; (2) MCAD is the state enforcer with a 300-day filing window, shorter than HUD's one year; and (3) a licensee is always bound, exemptions that might excuse a small owner never excuse the agent. Master those, and most exam items in this domain resolve quickly.