Equal Housing Opportunity Laws
The VA Home Loan Guarantee Program helps veterans attain home ownership by offering mortgage companies a guarantee on part of the loan amount extended to qualified veterans. This includes all minority veterans, and the VA and all of the companies working with the VA Home Loan Guarantee Program abide by all equal housing opportunity laws. The VA Home Loan Guarantee Program fully supports and follows by law the rules of the Equal Housing Opportunity Act.
The Equal Housing Opportunity laws include that no person will be discriminated against in ways such as:
- Financing discrimination, including refusal to originate a loan, higher interest rate loans, and loans with unfavorable terms considering the credit and debt to income ratio of the buyer.
- Terms of Sale discrimination, including unfavorable or high terms of property sale.
- Real estate services discrimination, including refusal to sell your property or refusal to show a property to a potential buyer.
- Advertising discrimination, including any advertisement that includes any ethnic, racial, gender, or religious preference toward the buyers of the property.
- Refusing to deal, including the real estate professional, seller, or mortgage company refusing to negotiate any terms of a sale based on discrimination.
- Discrimination by stating a property is not available when it is available.
- Blockbusting, which includes influence by parties or groups in the area or neighborhood that the seller not consider the sale of their property to people by reasons of discrimination.
All of these are examples of unlawful housing discrimination. The VA gives all veterans equal opportunity for establishing entitlement and applying for the VA Home Loan Guarantee program. In accordance with the Equal Opportunity Housing Laws the VA also only allows veterans to purchase, build, or renovate homes with people or businesses that abide by these laws. This includes the VA approved lenders, appraisers, inspectors, and service providers. Mortgage brokers, Real Estate Agents and professionals, and credit agencies must also abide by all equal opportunity laws in order to be affiliated with the VA Home Loan Guarantee Program.
If for any reason you feel that you have been discriminated against during the process of purchasing a home through the VA Home Loan Guarantee Program you should take immediate steps to report this discrimination. Contact your local VA Regional Service Center and they will gladly assist you in filing complaint forms. Once these forms are filed, an official investigation will begin in order to look into your suspected discrimination.