Unable to accept children = discrimination

LOL…Cabinhost, I think you have the wrong person. I definitely do not have a pit bull. You must be thinking of someone else. This is only the second time I have been on this site. Interesting though, I spoke with Farmers and they told me they specifically do not cover short term renters (aka Airbnb). Is your renter long term or short term?

I am curious, if you state no children and people still bring a baby, are they going to assume that you have cots and baby bedding, high chairs and the like? Some people WILL ask first of course, but people who use IB may not. I have recently upgraded to letting my place out as entire house as an option, as well as doing regular B&B, so I have bought a cot & high chair, but I didn’t have those things before.

These were newbie guests, and I don’t think they really thought that much ahead. Their communications were vague, and if it hadn’t been a same-day within 4hr anticipated arrival, I too would have more time to have thought this out. According to Airbnb you cannot state “no children” that is discrimination, and consequently the reason for the thread…forcing a child to be placed in potential harm’s way.

While it is true that you are not allowed by law to state “no children” in your listing, if you are renting a room in your SFH or if you have an owner occupied multi-family of 4 or less units, you are well within your rights to disallow them (see exceptions in the article below). These types of properties are exempt from federal Fair Housing Acts. So, while you can’t say “no children”, you can state throughout your listing that it is not suitable for children, it’s dangerous for children, you don’t have extra beds for children, your dog likes to bite children, and so on.

While I agree it feels like Airbnb is putting certain hosts in a very delicate situation (I can’t advertise no children, but I don’t have to allow them in my home? How does THAT work?), I believe they are doing the best they can to follow laws that were not written with all the types of accommodations available on Airbnb in mind.

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Great response, @Chloe - thank you.

Thank you for the reference and insight.

That makes no sense to me at all. Hotels across the world advertise as “child free” or “over 18’s only”. I can see if you are renting long term living accommodation, but we are talking AirB&B here, people come for a holiday for a few days. Especially if you are just renting a room out in your house for short term vacationers, you should absolutely have the right to say no children allowed. Pretty you can in the UK.

Be very careful, as local laws may not allow the exemptions that the FHA does. This is Washington state law, for example: Most types of housing properties are covered – leased or rented apartments; houses or condominiums that are sold, leased or rented; homeowners’ associations, rooming houses; cooperatives; transitional housing; temporary shelters; mobile home parks; roommate situations (except a renter can specify a roommate’s sex); construction sites; and even empty lots. If uncertain whether your property is covered, contact any local fair housing agency. See the Glossary in Appendix D for a list of exemptions.
Here is Appendix D:  religious organizations, associations, or societies, or any nonprofit institution or organization operated, supervised or controlled by one, which can limit the sale, rental or occupancy of dwellings which they own or operate for other than a commercial purpose to persons of the same religion, and can give preference to such persons (but cannot restrict on account of race, color or national origin).
 a private club not open to the public which as an incident to its primary purpose provides lodgings which it owns or operates for other than a commercial purpose, which can limit the rental or occupancy of such lodgings to its members, and can give preference to its members.
 rental actions against someone who was convicted by any court of competent jurisdiction of the illegal manufacture or distribution of a controlled substance.

This is in regard to safety concerns: Safety concerns are not a valid reason to deny housing to families with children. If an unsafe condition exists on the property, consider making it safe for all residents to avoid general liability for injuries. If that is not feasible, point out safety concerns to every applicant, not just families with children.
Source: https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/CivilRights/FH-FAQ-Property_Owners_Managers.pdf
This document might have a more recent version, but my point is to make sure to check your local laws as they can go beyond what the Federal law mandates.

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My suggestion is to have a conversation with the parent about how your rental is inappropriate for children. Most parents want what is best for their child. If they don’t answer your question the first time keep asking until they do or just decline them for not answering, not because they have a child.

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While it’s true that some states enact laws that are more strict than federal laws, and though there has to be some reason why they bother doing so (I suspect it’s political), when push comes to shove, federal laws trump state laws.

Clever answer Chloe. You can imagine the evolution of all this: Airbnb forcing hosts to prepare their homes for children to keep them safe. You have a balcony, you need a net. You have a kid´s dangerous dog, you lock the dog out. You have an interior ladder, you “protect/block access” that ladder from children and the list goes on.

We are millions of hosts, millions of guests. You only need one nightmare story from parents on where their kid has injured because of the lack of safety precautions in their Airbnb rental, and that´s it. It reaches the news, it then gets amplified, and sooner or later, Airbnb sends us the new politics about safety. Am I wrong?

I am not a lawyer so can’t explain it properly, but I’m quite sure that state law will prevail if a state is granting more citizen rights (I.e. families with children) or more restrictive laws (seat belt laws, things like that). This website sort if explains it: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Federal_Law_vs_State_Law
I’m not trying to argue, I just don’t want someone to think they can ignore local laws because the federal law might not require something.
Slightly different thing but we have a few regular long term rental properties and last summer our insurance required us to replace the railings on one of our buildings decks that had been there since the 70’s when built. They said the balusters were slightly too far apart, making it potentially dangerous for a child.

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Hi @Arlene_Larsson,

You could very well be right. Like you, I’m not a lawyer, but I have a bit of legal knowledge and am aware of that which you speak. My google search turned up the same site you linked to, which I read before my post. I took it to mean that a state law that restricted my right to not let children into my house even if I’m being paid to let a room would be taking away a right granted by the federal law. Therefore the federal law would take precedence.

This so clearly illustrates how convoluted, complicated and muddy laws can sometimes be, and why Airbnb is having such a difficult time. If you’re a homeowner, a state law that says you can’t discriminate against a family because they have children, no matter if you’re a duplex owner or a mega motel, is taking away a right given to you by a federal law, which says though you can’t advertise it, you don’t have to rent to families with children if you own a duplex. If you’re a family with children, the opposite is true; the state law is granting you additional protection.

I’d actually be very interested to see who prevailed in such a court case.

In the end people, listen to @Arlene_Larsson. She’s right to suggest you look at your state’s laws very carefully.

You are correct. I live in California where we have many laws that go above and beyond Federal law (environmental protection, tenants’ rights, employee protection, etc.). These laws do stand in California.

AirBnB is covering its ass re the fair housing act. As noted in another reply, those in their own home or small
apartment house can exclude children and this is legal. We sublet our lower floor for six months from May to October, which is advertised on AirBnB, and it clearly states No children, no pets, no smokers. Of course you can always have accidents involving adults but I presume your homeowner’s policy covers liability in case a guest sues you for injury. Normally this covers $1 million if you are sued. I strongly suspect that AirBnB knows that prohibiting children is quite legal. I wonder what else in their list of conditions is misleading or even inaccurate. Don’t give it another thought.

Then there are those who like to create law suits. If this only happens once a year it can wipe out a host. Suppose a child drowns in our pool (my biggest fear since I have no fence around my pool and it is steps from our patio). I am a host who used to host rooms in my home using Air for almost a year. I was fully booked making 1600.00 per month per room. Now, I rent out long term. I make almost the same amount of money because I include all the services I included when hosting. I charge 1200.00 per month for one room and stay full. My insurance covers my renters. My workload is cut down and I am working within the guidelines of my CC&R’s. All the rules that were added in the past year are losing a lot of hosts.

Most homeowners insurances will not cover short term rental accidents. They will usually cancel you if they find out you are running a business. You need to get a short term rental insurance like Comet or something similar but to my understanding these companies will want you to go through your insurance company for a refusal before they cover you meaning you will run the risk of being cancelled by your homeowners insurance. ugh! This is another of my biggest fears and what caused me to quit hosting.

Airium

Im sorry this has happened to you- You v has two rude shocks and people to deal with. IST how rude just to mention a 5 year old kid she was bringing to ""your home “”
"We have a indoor pool so cant have kids. None of pour family or friends bring kids here either as we dont like our peace being disturbed especially with the lack of manners children have these days. I could imagine youd have dams your way- but that aside you own the home and nobody cam force you to tolerate the noise of a bloody 5 year old or less in your own home. The operator sounds like a young upstart and no doubt you were shocked.
Actually under the law a person has the right to say what sex whom can stay in their place and who cant if its your principle place of residence.

So-- if your living their too- you can say no gays no males no black people - no same sex couples - no unmarried couples- no kids etc.

So airbab obviously dont know the LAW under the discrimination act.

Check out the law for yourself if you live their yourself which clearly you do id say

THEY are breaking the discrimination law NOT YOU!

It is not against the law for a company to have a stronger anti-discrimination policy than the law.

As its our own homes the law states this–

if its the principle place of residence and the owner lives there as well- you can say no kids no couples no Asians etc or anything else you wish.
That is the LAW- but they think they can dictate . I mean some people dont like kids-- simple as that. Who wants a 5 year old screaming and breaking things- or a baby crying

its your home- you made the rules and you say whom youll have and the conditions they can come under. airbab have many people not wanting kids-- understandable

in f ACT i feel to expect to bring noisy kids into another persons home is RUDE

Even more rude of airbab to try to force hard working people to take them

I have a indoor pool and i dont even have friends bring their kids