Quote:
Originally Posted by biggus diggus
You don't need to worry about protecting yourself from a reasonable person, it's the nutty people who are a theat.
The bolded sentence above means the author is determining what walking or biking distance is, and formulating an ad which appeals to people in two classes:
1. those who can ride a bike or walk
2. those who can ride a bike or walk, but can do either for limited distance which is perhaps not as much as required to get to the destination listed.
Federal fair housing laws are arcane and a complaint will result in a mandatory investigation which costs a business owner both time and money, even if it does not result in any fine. There have been instances in the past where this type of thing, or even crazier things have happened. The short answer is that you and I don't decide what a "reasonable person" should do. If the marketing people at Edison want to expose themselves to all that liability, that's on them, but professionally speaking I think it is rather nuts to stick your neck out there like that. It may be a "central theme in advertising for thousands" but that doesn't mean you aren't taking a risk by doing it.
If you want to learn more, you should call one of the many real estate attorneys in the Phoenix area (or any other since fair housing laws are the same throughout the country) and ask them to explain the risks you're taking by classifying the ad as such.
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It must be a local thing. Federal laws are federal laws (with some wiggle at the district level initially), but thousands of buildings talk about walkability. Maybe it's not a selling point in some cases, but when it is, it's often used heavily.
My first click:
Equity Residential on the first line of their listing of buildings in my city. And my first click for Downtown
Phoenix does the same.
There might be a gap between the Equity Residential type guys that can handle spurious claims and the little players that don't know enough to worry...midsized firms that worry but can't easily handle claims. But at any size range it's a common advertising theme.
Further, the suburban-type developers would obviously be less interested or less willing to take a risk than the urban locations.