West Virginia Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

The West Virginia Fair Housing Act protects several classes that the federal Fair Housing Act does not name in the same terms. Those additional West Virginia classes are:

• a.age and marital status
• b.source of income and veteran status
• c.ancestry and blindness✓
• d.sexual orientation and gender identity

W. Va. Code §16B-18-5 makes it unlawful to refuse to sell or rent, to discriminate in terms or conditions, or to misrepresent availability "because of race, color, religion, ancestry, sex, familial status, blindness, disability or national origin." Ancestry and blindness are the two the federal list does not carry in those words; the rest track the federal classes. The act is now codified in chapter 16B, article 18, having been moved from chapter 5, article 11A, and it is administered by the West Virginia Human Rights Commission. Age, marital status, source of income, veteran status, sexual orientation, and gender identity are not among the classes §16B-18-5 lists. Separately, W. Va. Code §30-40-19(a)(27) makes discrimination violating any federal or state anti-discrimination law a ground for real estate discipline.

A West Virginia licensee telephones owners in a neighborhood suggesting they list now because families of a particular national origin are moving in. Under the West Virginia Fair Housing Act, this is unlawful as:

• a.an unauthorized solicitation of an owner already under contract
• b.a failure to deliver the notice of agency relationship in time
• c.inducing a sale by representations about a protected class entering✓
• d.advertising a property on terms other than those the owner authorized

W. Va. Code §16B-18-5(e) makes it unlawful "[f]or profit, to induce or attempt to induce any person to sell or rent any dwelling by representations regarding the entry or prospective entry into the neighborhood of a person or persons of a particular race, color, religion, sex, blindness, disability, familial status, ancestry or national origin." The words "or attempt to induce" mean the calls violate the act whether or not anyone lists. The agency disclosure duty in §30-40-26(d) attaches to a representation relationship that has not been formed here. Soliciting an owner already exclusively represented is addressed by §30-40-19(a)(39) and is a different wrong. And advertising on unauthorized terms under §30-40-19(a)(11) concerns how a listed property is described, not why owners are urged to sell.

A West Virginia multiple listing service denies membership to an applicant broker on account of her national origin. Under the West Virginia Fair Housing Act, this is:

• a.lawful, because a listing service is a private membership organization
• b.unlawful discrimination in the provision of brokerage services✓
• c.lawful unless a consumer is denied housing as a result
• d.unlawful only if the listing service receives state or federal funding

W. Va. Code §16B-18-7 makes it unlawful "to deny any person access to or membership or participation in any multiple listing service, real estate broker's organization or other service, organization or facility relating to the business of selling or renting dwellings, or to discriminate against him or her in the terms or conditions of such access, membership, or participation" on any of the act's protected grounds. The section reaches the industry's own institutions, so private membership is exactly the setting it governs rather than an exception to it. No consumer need be turned away from housing, because the injury the section names is the broker's exclusion. And the act draws no line at public funding; the private club exemption in §16B-18-8 runs to lodgings a club owns, not to trade organizations.

A tenant with a disability asks a West Virginia landlord to allow an assistance animal in a no-pets building. Under the West Virginia Fair Housing Act, the landlord may:

• a.deny it if credible evidence shows the animal is a direct threat✓
• b.charge the building's standard pet deposit as a condition of allowing it
• c.refuse because the animal has no formal training or certification
• d.require the tenant's medical records to verify the disability

W. Va. Code §16B-18-5(f)(10) treats rules about animals as subject to the reasonable accommodation requirement and then sets the boundaries. Subparagraph (B) allows denial where credible evidence shows the animal "poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others" or would cause substantial physical damage, and subparagraph (C) requires that finding to rest on an individualized assessment of the specific animal's actual conduct. Subparagraph (A) permits documentation of the disability-related need from a treatment provider but bars requiring medical records or access to medical providers. Subparagraph (D) provides that a request "may not be unreasonably denied, conditioned on payment of a fee or deposit or other terms and conditions applied to applicants or residents with pets." And §16B-18-3(p) defines an assistance animal as one weighing less than 150 pounds "with or without specific training or certification," so the absence of training is not a ground for refusal.