Fair Housing, Environmental & Lending Laws, and Florida Security Deposits

This area pulls together laws from outside Chapter 475 that a sales associate meets every week. They cover discrimination in housing and lending, environmental hazards, settlement kickbacks, and the security deposit rules in Florida's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Questions are usually short scenarios asking whether conduct is lawful, or which deadline applies.

Florida Fair Housing Act

Chapter 760 makes it unlawful to discriminate in housing because of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, familial status, or religion. Prohibited acts include:

• refusing to sell, rent or negotiate after a bona fide offer, or otherwise making a dwelling unavailable;
• setting different terms, conditions or privileges;
• publishing any notice or ad that indicates a preference, limitation or discrimination;
• falsely saying a dwelling is not available for inspection, sale or rental;
• blockbusting: for profit, inducing people to sell or rent by pointing to the entry of a protected group into the neighborhood.

Familial status means a child under 18 living with a parent or custodian. It also protects anyone who is pregnant or in the process of getting custody. For disability, refusing a reasonable modification (made at the disabled person's expense) or a reasonable accommodation in rules or policies is discrimination.

A person harmed by discrimination may file a written complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations. The commission must investigate and tell the complainant within 100 days whether it intends to resolve the complaint.

Federal environmental laws

• Lead-based paint: target housing is housing built before 1978, with limited exceptions. Before a buyer is bound, the seller must disclose known lead hazards and give the buyer a 10-day opportunity (unless the parties agree otherwise) for a risk assessment or inspection.
• CERCLA (Superfund): liability for hazardous substance cleanup can fall on the current owner and operator of a facility and on those who owned or operated it when the substances were disposed of. That is why environmental due diligence matters on commercial deals.

Federal mortgage lending laws

• Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B): lenders may not discriminate on a prohibited basis: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age (if the applicant can contract), receipt of public assistance income, or good-faith exercise of consumer credit rights.
• RESPA Section 8: no one may give or accept a fee, kickback or thing of value for referring settlement service business on a federally related mortgage loan.

Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act: deposits and advance rent

Advance rent is money paid for future rent periods. Rent paid ahead for the current period does not count. The landlord must hold security deposits and advance rent in one of three ways:

1. a separate non-interest-bearing account in a Florida financial institution, with no commingling;
2. a separate interest-bearing account, paying the tenant at least 75% of the annualized average rate or 5% simple interest per year, at the landlord's choice; or
3. a surety bond filed with the clerk of the circuit court, plus 5% simple interest per year to the tenant.

A landlord with five or more units must give written notice of where the money is held, in the lease or within 30 days of receiving it. Advance rent may be moved to the landlord when its rental period begins.

Move-out deadlines

• No claim: return the deposit (with any interest owed) within 15 days after the lease ends.
• Claim: within 30 days, send written notice of the claim and the reason, by certified mail to the last known address or by email. A landlord who misses this window forfeits the right to claim against the deposit, though they may still sue for damages after returning it.
• Tenant's response: the tenant has 15 days after receiving the notice to object in writing. If there is no objection, the landlord deducts the claim and returns the balance within 30 days of the notice.

Where this shows up on the exam

Federal and State Laws Pertaining to Real Estate is 3% of the exam in the DBPR booklet (January 2025), about three questions. The favorites are Florida's seven protected classes, the licensee-kills-the-exemption rule, and the 15/30/15-day deposit sequence.

Sources

North Carolina law as published by the General Assembly and the Office of Administrative Hearings, checked 2026-11-05:

• ss. 760.22, 760.23, 760.29, 760.34, F.S.
• ss. 83.43, 83.49, F.S.
• 24 CFR 35.86
• 42 U.S.C. 4852d
• 42 U.S.C. 9607
• 12 CFR 1002.2
• 12 U.S.C. 2607
• DBPR Sales Associate Candidate Information Booklet (Jan 2025)