Introduction 
The Federal Fair Housing Act (“Act”) (42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-19) prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability (as well as sexual orientation/gender identity if the housing provider or program receives federal funding. A housing provider’s refusal to make a reasonable accommodation that is necessary to afford a person with a disability the equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling constitutes disability discrimination and is a violation of the Act. 

What is a Reasonable Accommodation? 
A reasonable accommodation is some exception or change that a housing provider makes to its rules, policies, services, or regulations that will assist a resident or applicant with a disability in making full use of a housing program or dwelling. The requested accommodation must be necessary for the person with the disability to enjoy their dwelling unit or to fully use services offered to other residents. Examples of reasonable accommodations would include: permitting an assistive animal in a “no pet” property; permitting a live-in personal care attendant to reside with a resident with a disability; use of increased font size on notices from the landlord; or allowing priority assignment to a first floor apartment for a requester with limited mobility. 

Reasonable Accommodation Requests and Eviction 
Reasonable accommodation requests can sometimes be used to stop an eviction. This would be the case when the basis for the eviction is connected in some way to a disability. For example: an eviction because a wheelchair caused damage due to narrow hallways; an eviction for aggressive or disturbing behavior where the tenant has a mental illness; or an eviction for noise complaints due to loud television where the tenant is hearing impaired. Under the Act, a landlord cannot necessarily evict a tenant with a disability if based on behavior or characteristics related to the disability. If the tenant proposes an accommodation that would eliminate or reduce the impact of the lease violation, the landlord must make such accommodations where they would not be unduly burdensome. 

If you receive an eviction notice connected to your disability, you should immediately contact an attorney or fair housing organization for further assistance. They can help you draft a reasonable accommodation request to address the housing provider’s concern. For example, a tenant who has a hearing impairment and has received a lease violation for noise could submit a reasonable accommodation request to allow him time to “cure” the lease violation by acquiring headphones for his television. Or, a tenant who is being evicted for aggressive behavior related to mental illness could submit a reasonable accommodation request to allow her more time to “cure” the violation by getting the assistance of a case worker to help her manage her mental illness. There are many creative ways reasonable accommodation requests could be used to cease eviction proceedings and preserve your tenancy. 

"The work that provided the basis for this publication was supported by funding under a grant with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The substance and findings of the work are dedicated to the public. The author and publisher are solely responsible for the accuracy of the statements and interpretations contained in this publication. Such interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Government."

Facing court can feel impossible when you’re worried about rent, fees, or just being heard, but you still have rights. If you’re being evicted, you can file an Answer to tell the court your side of the story, raise defenses (like “I paid,” “the home wasn’t livable,” or “I didn’t get proper notice”), and you can ask for a jury to decide the facts, not just a fast ruling from a judge. Idaho Legal Aid Services has fought in court to protect that right to a jury trial in eviction cases and to make sure tenants are told about it.

If money is the barrier, you can also ask the court to waive filing fees and service costs. Our fee waiver packet walks you step by step through what to fill out, what financial info the judge will look at (income, bills, household size), and what happens next if the judge approves or asks you to come to a short hearing. A granted fee waiver means you can file your case without paying up front.

This Court Assistance Office page gathers the court forms a tenant or landlord might need in an Idaho eviction or housing dispute, and it lays them out in the order the case usually happens. It includes the 3-day notice to pay or move, the eviction complaint and summons the landlord files, and the tenant’s Answer to tell the judge their side. 

It also has what happens next, how to serve papers, what to ask the court for, and the final judgment or writ that can force someone out. In plain terms: it’s the step-by-step paperwork for “I’m being evicted” or “I need repairs and my landlord won’t fix them,” all in one place.

Idaho Legal Aid Services has created a series of videos to provide information to tenants facing an eviction. If you have questions about the eviction process, tenants' rights in eviction, and possible defenses to raise in an eviction hearing, these videos could be a great resource for you.

You can access these videos directly from the Idaho Legal Aid Services YouTube page.

The federal Fair Housing Act requires housing providers to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services when needed to give equal opportunity for a person with a disability to use and enjoy the place where they live. Disability is defined under the Fair Housing Act as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. If a property does not allow pets, a person with a disability can give a Reasonable Accommodation request to her housing provider and the housing provider must allow an assistive animal, when needed. This is to allow the tenant an equal use and enjoyment of the property. The person requesting the Reasonable Accommodation may need to show documentation from a qualified professional (e.g., physician, psychiatrist, social worker) to prove they have a need for the assistive animal. 

Housing providers cannot ask a tenant who requires an assistive animal to pay a pet deposit or fee for their animal. The housing provider cannot require special training for assistive animals. Finally, the provider cannot inquire about the nature or the severity of the tenant’s disability. 

Assistive animals help persons with physical or psychiatric disabilities. Assistive animals can include service animals, emotional support animals, or other animals that assist a person with a disability. The terms “service,” “support,” and “assistive” can be used inter-changeably to describe the different roles of assistive animals. Service animals perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a physical, intellectual, or mental disability. Examples include: seeing eye dogs, an animal pulling a wheelchair, or hearing dogs. Service animals do not need to be registered with a service animal organization in order to be considered a “service animal.” 

Support animals provide therapeutic benefit to a person with a mental or psychiatric disability. Support animals have been shown to be highly effective at reducing the symptoms of disabilities such as PTSD and depression. Assistive animals do not require special training as it is often just the presence of the animal that benefits the person with a disability. 

To learn about fair housing, contact Idaho Legal Aid Services at (208) 746-7541 To file a fair housing complaint, contact Intermountain Fair Housing Council (208) 383-0695 in Boise or 1-800-717-0695 (toll free), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 1-800-669-9777 or 1-800-927-9275 (TDD).

What is the Fair Housing Act? The Fair Housing Act is a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. The Fair Housing Act protects people from discrimination when they are renting or buying a home, getting a mortgage, seeking housing assistance, or engaging in other housing-related activities. Additional protections may be found in federally-assisted housing. Federal laws prohibit discrimination in housing and community development programs and activities. The FHA also requires that all federal programs relating to housing and urban development be administered in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing. 

What Is Discrimination under the Fair Housing Act? The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing because of: race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and sex discrimination. Exception: housing for older persons – certain senior housing facilities and communities Disability Includes both physical and mental impairments Includes reasonable accommodation and modification requests including support animal requests 

What Types of Acts are Discriminatory under the Fair Housing Act in the Home Buying and Selling Process? The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate against someone because of race, color, religion, sex (including gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexual harassment), familial status, national origin or disability at any stage of the home buying and selling process, including: Mortgage approvals and denials Mortgage Terms, e.g. interest rates, points, fees and other costs Advertising Mortgage broker services Property appraisals Servicing Home loan modification assistance Homeowners insurance The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in loans that are secured by residential real estate or that are for the purchasing, constructing, improving, repairing or maintaining a dwelling. This includes mortgages, refinancing, home equity loans and home improvement loans. Some examples of discriminatory acts in the home buying and selling process may include: Refusal to make a mortgage loan or provide other financial assistance for a dwelling Example: refusing to provide a mortgage to a person on parental leave Example: refusing to consider an applicant’s disability-related income, such as SSI or SSDI Refusal to provide information regarding loans Imposing different terms or conditions on a loan, such as different interest rates, points, or fees Discriminating in appraising a dwelling Conditioning the availability of a loan on a person’s response to harassment Refusing to purchase a loan Under the Fair Housing Act, these acts are discriminatory if they are based on someone’s race, color, national origin, disability, sex, religion, or familial status. 

What Is an Appraisal? An appraisal is a point-in-time opinion of value. In order to issue a home loan, the lender (typically a bank) must conduct an appraisal to determine the value of the home they will finance under a home mortgage loan (for a purchase or refinance transaction). The appraiser’s scope of work typically includes: -the type of property inspection (interior, exterior only, or no inspection); -what approaches to value are required (sales comparison, cost, or income); and -any lender-specific requirements. 

What Are Examples of Appraisal Bias? Language in an appraisal that indicates bias. Some examples include: 

• Noting that a nearby shopping plaza featured “storefronts supplying Jewish Households."
• Referring to an area with a growing immigrant population as “one spicy neighborhood.”
• Including that an area was “originally founded as a whites-only city or sundown town” but had become “fairly diverse” with a “diverse school system.” 

This also includes appraisal estimates that are significantly different in value. Those examples may include: 

• An African-American family received an appraisal of their home that they believed was low and then removed all evidence of their African-American culture, including pictures and art, and had their white friend greet the appraiser and received a much higher appraisal value. 

Idaho Legal Aid Services has created a video on fair housing discrimination in the home buying and selling process under the federal Fair Housing Act. Check out our video on our Youtube page here: https://youtu.be/BrFWkPIDzOQ and in Spanish/Espanol at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjpNI96Z55k

The Fair Housing Act prohibits efforts to coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any person’s fair housing rights (see 42 United States code 3617). This includes harassment and retaliation against a person exercising their fair housing rights. 

Harassment may include discriminatory acts based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, and familial status. Examples of harassment that violate the Fair Housing Act include: 

• A tenant repeatedly yelling anti-Muslim slurs at a Muslim tenant;
• Taunting, threatening, or making fun of a neighbor with a cognitive or mental disability;
• A maintenance employee making anti-LGBTQ comments to a bisexual tenant;
• A tenant telling an Asian tenant to “go home” and “stop spreading China flu”;
• Placing multiple anti-Semitic flyers around the home of a Jewish family;
• or Other tenants yelling racial slurs at their Black neighbor. 

These examples are merely representative – harassment can take many forms. 

Retaliation may include any adverse (negative) action taken against a person who tries to enforce their fair housing rights. For example, when a tenant reports a discriminatory practice or action to a housing provider, this complaint cannot lead to retaliation because the tenant has a right to try to enforce their fair housing rights. Even if the tenant’s complaint is unfounded or without basis, a retaliatory action based on that complaint is a violation of the Fair Housing Act. 

Examples of retaliation that violate the Fair Housing Act include:

• A tenant that coerces or threatens a housing provider to deny housing to a Hispanic applicant based on his national origin;
• A housing provider that threatens to evict a tenant who requests a reasonable accommodation related to their disability, such as a service animal;
• A housing provider that refuses to renew a tenant’s lease because they filed a HUD Complaint against the housing provider;
• A housing provider that raises a tenant’s rent after that tenant shared Fair Housing Act information with other tenants; or
• A housing provider that offers a female tenant free rent in exchange for sexual acts. 

These examples are merely representative – retaliation can take many forms. 

If you believe you have been the victim of harassment or retaliation in violation of the Fair Housing Act, you can file a HUD Complaint by calling: 1-800-669-9777 (TTY: 1-800-877-8339) or online through the HUD Fair Housing Complaint portal. It is illegal to retaliate against any person for making a complaint, testifying, assisting, or participating in any manner in a proceeding under HUD’s complaint process at any time, even after the investigation has been completed. 

The FBI makes preventing hate crimes a top priority. If you believe you have been the victim of a hate crime, you can file a report with the FBI by calling: 1-800-CALL-FBI or submitting a tip at tips.fbi.gov. 

For an audio recording of Idaho Legal Aid Services' Harassment and Retaliation video in English, please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgTUhrRka78. Please view the video on Harassment and Retaliation to learn about your rights under the Fair Housing Act: English Version with Subtitles Available in Multiple Languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN_lWSOYIZ8. Spanish version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1ms7TaKb4E.

The following activities may indicate discrimination. You can follow up by requesting a written explanation from the housing provider or by contacting an agency, such as the Intermountain Fair Housing Council, who can do testing to see if discrimination is occurring.

• Misrepresenting the availability of housing (e.g., telling you a property is not available when there is still a for rent/for sale sign up, still an ad listing the property, or other indications it is available).
• Steering you to certain buildings or properties based on your belonging to a protected class (e.g.,” we like to have the families in this building close to the playground”, or “that neighborhood isn’t a good fit for you”)
• Telling you they have no properties available for you
• Rules about adults sharing bedrooms or regarding male and female children sharing a bedroom
• Landlord claims it is not a safe place for children to live
• Landlord refuses to accept a support animal or requires a pet deposit for support animals
• Landlord denies your reasonable accommodation or reasonable modification request
• Realtor requires you to be pre-qualified before they will show you properties but they don’t require this of everyone
• Lender requires additional proof of income or co-signors because you belong to a protected class (e.g., national origin or disability)
• Cannot purchase in a community because of having children or because of your special needs due to a disability.
• Lending agent treats you badly, won’t return your calls, discourages you and you believe the treatment is based on your belonging to a protected class
• Mortgage company has a policy that eliminates your home from qualifying for a loan (e.g., “We don’t give loans under $50,000”)

Do you know what a place of public accommodation is? Did you know that places of public accommodation must be accessible to persons with disabilities? To learn more, please view our Public Accommodations Guide, which covers state and federal protections for persons with disabilities in places of public accommodation.

This Landlord Tenant Manual was created by the Idaho Attorney General's Office and describes both landlord and tenant's rights and responsibilities in areas such as moving in, lease agreements, privacy, repairs and damages, utilities, mold, rent, changing the lease agreement, moving out, the Manufactured Home Residency Act, and storage units. This manual also includes citations to relevant law in these areas.

You may download the manual below or click here for the English and Spanish versions of this guide.

Moving out and worried about your security deposit? This set of handouts explains your rights in plain language and gives you ready-to-use tools to get your money back. 

In Idaho, a landlord must return the full deposit, or send a written, itemized list of deductions, within 21 days after your lease ends (or 30 days if your lease says so), and can’t charge for normal wear and tear. If that doesn’t happen, you can send a short demand letter and, if needed, take next steps in Small Claims Court. Resources are available in English and Spanish, so you can choose what works best for you.

In Idaho, investor-owned utilities providing basic services such as electricity, gas, water and telecommunications services must follow rules that protect consumers. The rules are established and enforced by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC). The IPUC is a state agency charged with regulating investor-owned utilities. (City-owned or cooperative utilities are not regulated by the IPUC). The rules say when a utility can and cannot disconnect service to a customer. They also require utilities to inform customers before service is actually shut off, so that payment plans can be attempted and disconnection avoided. 

This fact sheet answers common questions about your rights and responsibilities as a customer of a regulated gas, electric, or water utility. Please click here to view the factsheet. A utility shutoff guide has also been attached for review.

Please click the following link for Tenant's Request for Repairs. It's important that you read all of the instructions before filling out the forms.

This form can also be accessed through the following link. 

If you are a tenant that needs to answer a Complaint for a Nonpayment of Rent Eviction (Unlawful Detainer), you can find the forms you need here, under Respond to an Eviction for Nonpayment of Rent.