How to File a HUD Fair Housing Complaint: Process and Remedies

To file a HUD fair housing complaint, submit HUD’s housing discrimination form online, call 1-800-669-9777, or mail Form 903.1 to your regional Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity within one year of the last discriminatory act.¹² There is no filing fee. HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity investigates, tries to settle the matter through conciliation, and if it finds reasonable cause, issues a charge that can lead to an administrative hearing or a federal lawsuit brought on your behalf.

Before You File: Check That the Act Applies

The Fair Housing Act protects seven characteristics: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability.³ Familial status covers households with children under 18, pregnant women, and anyone in the process of securing custody of a minor. Disability includes physical and mental impairments that substantially limit major life activities, and extends to people associated with a person who has a disability.

Coverage of sexual orientation and gender identity has shifted. HUD announced in 2021 that it would enforce the Act to reach both, based on the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Bostock v. Clayton County.⁴ Executive Order 14168, issued in January 2025, directed HUD to reverse course and remove references to gender identity from its regulations.⁵ State or local fair housing law may still cover you even where federal enforcement has narrowed.

Two exemptions catch some filers off guard. An owner-occupied building with four or fewer units is exempt from most of the Act, and an individual owner who owns three or fewer single-family homes can rent or sell without complying, as long as no real estate agent or broker is involved.⁶ Neither exemption reaches discriminatory advertising, and no exemption applies to racial discrimination in the sale or rental of property under the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

The Three Ways to File

HUD accepts complaints through three channels, and all three feed into the same investigation.¹

Online. HUD’s portal walks you through an interactive version of the form. You enter information directly on the site rather than uploading a PDF.⁷
By phone. Call 1-800-669-9777 (TTY: 1-800-927-9275). An intake specialist will take your complaint.
By mail. Download HUD Form 903.1, complete it, and send it to your regional Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.⁸

The one-year deadline runs from the last discriminatory act. If the conduct is ongoing, each new incident resets the clock, but there’s no benefit to waiting. Filing early keeps your evidence fresh and your options open.

What to Put in the Complaint

Whichever channel you use, HUD needs your name and contact information, the identity of the person or company you’re complaining about (landlord, property manager, real estate agent, or seller), the address of the property, and a description of what happened.⁸

The description carries the case. Write a chronological account: dates, who was present, what was said or done, and who witnessed each interaction. Attach anything that backs it up. Lease agreements, rejection letters, texts, emails, voicemails, and screenshots of listings that expressed a preference or exclusion all help. Vague accounts stall; specific ones move.

What Happens After You File

HUD notifies the respondent within 10 days of receiving your complaint and gives them a chance to answer.² From there, several things can happen in parallel.

Referral to a State or Local Agency

If a state or local fair housing agency in your area has been certified as “substantially equivalent” to the federal Act, HUD refers your complaint to that agency for investigation under the Fair Housing Assistance Program.⁹ The referral happens automatically. If your area doesn’t have a certified agency, HUD investigates directly.

Conciliation

Throughout the investigation, HUD tries to broker a settlement between you and the respondent. If both sides agree, the terms go into a written conciliation agreement, which is enforceable if the respondent later breaks it. Conciliation can include money damages, access to the housing you were denied, changes to the provider’s policies, and attorney’s fees.¹⁰

Investigation and Determination

HUD is supposed to finish the investigation within 100 days of filing. If it can’t, it must tell both sides in writing why.¹¹ Investigators may conduct interviews, request documents, visit the property, and take witness statements.

At the end, HUD reaches one of two conclusions. Insufficient evidence leads to a no reasonable cause determination and closure of the case. Sufficient evidence leads to a Charge of Discrimination.

Hearing or Federal Court

Once HUD issues a charge, either party has 20 days to elect federal district court instead of an administrative hearing.¹² If someone elects court, the Department of Justice files suit on your behalf. If neither party does, a HUD administrative law judge hears the case.

What a Win Can Get You

At an administrative hearing, the judge can order actual damages (including compensation for emotional distress), injunctive relief, and civil penalties. The civil penalty ceilings depend on the respondent’s history:¹²

No prior violations: up to $10,000 (statutory base).
One prior violation within 5 years: up to $25,000.
Two or more prior violations within 7 years: up to $50,000.

These base amounts are adjusted upward for inflation periodically, so the current maximums may be higher. In federal court, actual damages, punitive damages with no statutory cap, and injunctive relief are all on the table. In either forum, the prevailing party can recover reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.¹³

You Can Also Sue Directly

A HUD complaint is not the only route. The Fair Housing Act lets you file a private lawsuit in federal or state court within two years of the discriminatory act, and the time your HUD complaint spent pending doesn’t count against that two-year window.¹³¹⁴ Court remedies include actual damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, and attorney’s fees, and the fee-shifting provision is one reason many fair housing attorneys take these cases on contingency.

Filing both a HUD complaint and a private lawsuit on the same matter is permitted, though HUD will typically pause its administrative process once a civil action is filed.

If the Landlord Retaliates

It is illegal to threaten, intimidate, or interfere with anyone for exercising fair housing rights, including filing a complaint, taking part in an investigation, or helping someone else assert their rights.¹⁵ A rent hike, sudden refusal to make repairs, or eviction filing that arrives soon after you complained is a separate federal violation and can be the basis of its own complaint.

Keep a written record of how the housing provider treated you before and after you filed. Retaliation cases often turn on timing, and a clean timeline is powerful evidence on its own.

1
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Report Housing Discrimination
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3610 – Administrative Enforcement – Complaints and Answers
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3604 – Discrimination in the Sale or Rental of Housing and Other Prohibited Practices
4
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD to Enforce Fair Housing Act to Prohibit Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
5
Federal Register. Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs – Revisions
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3603 – Effective Dates of Certain Prohibitions
7
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD-903 Report Housing Discrimination
8
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD Form 903.1 – Housing Discrimination Claim Form
9
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP)
10
eCFR. 24 CFR Part 103 – Fair Housing – Complaint Processing
11
eCFR. 24 CFR Part 103 Subpart D – Investigation Procedures
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3612 – Enforcement by Secretary
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3613 – Enforcement by Private Persons
14
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Legal Opinion GME-0004 – Time Limitation for Filing Complaint
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3617 – Interference, Coercion, or Intimidation