10.45 Duty to the Public
1 min readLast updated: edition
Company policy is to never deny equal professional services or discriminate against a person on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, or sexual orientation.
An agent must obey the instructions of his or her principal. However, all of the federal and state antidiscrimination laws limit the obligation of the agent to obey his or her principal, if in doing so, the agent will be violating the Federal or State Fair Housing laws.
Amendments to the Standard of Practice in 2006 REALTOR® Code of Ethics specifically addressed the following discrimination issues:
-
A licensee may not volunteer information regarding the racial, religious, or ethnic composition of any neighborhood. However, this does not prevent a licensee from providing to a client other types of demographic information relating to a neighborhood. The types of demographic information that may be volunteered relates to such factors as age, income distribution, school children profiles, and so forth.
-
A licensee may give to a client, at the request of the client, demographic information relating to racial, religious, or ethnic composition of a neighborhood, but only if the licensee deems such demographic information necessary to assist with the completion of a transaction. The licensee may provide this information only if its presentation is consistent with a non-discriminatory presentation of the data and the information is obtained or derived from a recognized, reliable, independent, and impartial source such as government census websites. The licensee may also not alter, modify, add to, or delete from the independent information so as to change the interpretation of such demographic data.
-
A licensee may not engage in any activity that would result in panic selling.
-
A licensee may not print, display, or circulate any statement or advertisement with respect to selling or renting of a property that indicates any discrimination, limitation, or preference based upon race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.
