Are Age Restrictions on Senior Communities Discriminatory Against Younger Buyers?

Let's say you and your spouse are looking for a quiet neighborhood in which to start a family. You visit an open house at a place that seems perfect, all on one level, with a fenced-in yard. But before you could make an offer, you were informed that you can't buy the house because it is located in a senior living community.

Is it legal for a senior living community to forbid younger people from living there? Or is this some form of discrimination against families with children? That's what we'll examine here.

Federal Law and Fair Housing Restrictions

The Federal Fair Housing Act ("FHA") makes it unlawful for a housing provider to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and familial status. The "familial status" protections in the FHA prohibit discrimination against families that have children under the age of 18. (See 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601 to 19.)

First, to see whether this law applies, you need to establish that there's a "housing provider" in the picture. The housing provider might be the person or company developing the property, or it could be the homeowners' association ("HOA") that enforces the communities' rules and regulations. Therefore a developer or HOA must, in most cases, abide by the FHA, and can't refuse to sell a house or unit to someone because of that person's age or because that person has a family.

But when you look closer at the familial status protections in the FHA, you find there are three big exceptions that apply to senior living communities. These were created to allow elderly people to live peacefully and quietly in communities that attend to their unique needs. A senior living community might be lawfully exempt from the FHA's familial status protections if it meets one of the following three criteria:

1. it is intended for people ages 62 or older, and every occupant is at least 62
2. it is intended and operated for people ages 55 and older, and 80% of the housing units are occupied by at least one person over the age of 55, or
3. the community is part of a state or federal housing program designed to assist elderly people.

You are most likely to encounter legitimate senior communities that operate based on the 55 or older exemption. Such communities will also need to publish and follow policies and procedures that demonstrate their intent to operate as "55 or older" housing, and comply with HUD requirements for verifying residents' ages.

Researching Whether a Community Is Legitimately Exempt From FHA Protections for Families With Children

To find out for sure whether one of the above three exceptions applies to the community you are interested in, you can always explore the details.

For example, if it just calls itself a senior living community, but in reality is composed of childless people in their forties and above, it might not meet the 80% requirement described in the second exception above. A development such as this might be pretending to be a senior living community when really it just wants to keep out children.

The community in question should be able to show you records to prove it meets the requirements of one of the above exceptions to the familial status protections in the FHA.

Should You Hire an Attorney?

You could consult an attorney if you wish to take the matter further and buy a house in a community that's designated for senior living. As a practical matter, however, consider whether taking legal action is a productive use of your time and money. You risk alienating your future neighbors and draining the resources of the very community in which you hoped to live.