CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT Civil Rights Act of 1866 The Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibits all racial discrimination in the sale or rental of property. Fair Housing Act The Fair Housing Act makes illegal any discrimination in the sale, lease or rental of housing, or making housing otherwise unavailable, because of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, familial status, children in the household, pregnancy or handicap. To see if you’ve experienced discrimination please use those factors to answer these questions. 1. Has anyone refused to rent to you or sell you housing? 2. Have you been told you housing is unavailable when it is in fact available? 3. Have you been shown apartments or homes only in certain neighborhoods? 4. Have you seen an advertisement offering housing to preferred groups of people only? 5. Has anyone refused to provide you with information regarding mortgage loans or imposed different terms or conditions on your mortgage loan? 6. Have you been denied property insurance? 7. Have you had a property appraisal that was conducted in a discriminatory manner? 8. Has anyone refused to make modifications or accommodations for persons with a mental or physical disability? 9. Is your housing not designed and constructed in an accessible manner? 10. Have you been harassed, coerced, intimidated or interfered with when exercising or assisting someone else with his or her fair housing rights? You have the right to Fair Housing. If you answered yes to any of these questions you can file a Fair Housing complaint. See your instructor or counselor for more information. Americans with Disabilities Act Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in places of public accommodations and commercial facilities. Equal Credit Opportunity Act The Equal Credit Opportunity Act makes discrimination unlawful with respect to any aspect of a credit application on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age or because all or part of the applicant's income derives from any public assistance program. State and Local Laws State and local laws often provide broader coverage and prohibit discrimination based on additional and specific consideration not covered by federal law. The Community Reinvestment Act The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 is a federal law that requires banks to make loans and invest in the areas where they obtain customer deposits. The purpose of CRA is to prevent that lenders refuse to lend in certain communities of low or moderate income residents. In order to comply with this law, lenders often offer reduced rate mortgages and home improvement loans to low/moderate income borrowers and/or in low/moderate income areas. Banks are the only lenders that must comply with the Community Reinvestment Act. Mortgage companies do not take deposits so they are not regulated under CRA. Fair Credit Reporting Act Companies that gather and sell this information about your credit history are called credit-reporting agencies. The most common type of credit reporting agency is the credit bureau. The information credit reporting agencies sell about you to creditors, employers, insurers, and other businesses is called a consumer report. The Fair Credit Reporting protects you by requiring credit bureaus to furnish accurate and complete information to businesses when they evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, or a job. The FCRA entitles the consumer to the following: 1. The right to know what is on your credit report 2. The right to know who received your report in the past six months. 3. The states of NY and NJ require each credit-reporting agency to provide you with a free report once a year. 4. The right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information. 5. The right to obtain a corrected report when the error investigation proves valid. 6. The right to add a consumer statement to any information that you feel is inaccurate even when the bureau can provide proof. 7. The right to have negative information removed from your credit report seven years after it has been cleared. 8. The right to have bankruptcies removed from your credit report ten years after the date of discharge. 9. Information concerning a lawsuit or a judgment against you can be reported for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer. 10. Only people with a legitimate business need can get your report. 11. The right to report violations of this law to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The Fair Credit Billing Act The Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) applies to "open end" credit accounts, such as credit cards, revolving charge accounts - such as department store accounts - and overdraft checking accounts. It does not cover installment contracts - loans or extensions of credit you repay on a fixed schedule. Consumers often buy cars, furniture and major appliances on an installment basis, and repay personal loans in installments as well. The FCBA settlement procedures apply only to disputes about "billing errors." For example: • unauthorized charges. Federal law limits your responsibility for unauthorized charges to $50; • charges that list the wrong date or amount; • charges for goods and services you didn't accept or weren't delivered as agreed; • math errors; • failure to post payments and other credits, such as returns; • failure to send bills to your current address - provided you supply a change of address at least 20 days before the billing period ends; and • charges for which you ask for an explanation, or written proof of purchase along with a claimed error or request for clarification. |
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