AIDS DISCLOSURE IN REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

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In recent years, the number of persons afflicted with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has increased at an alarming rate. As a result, real estate brokers and salesmen are faced with the growing possibility of working with a client or customer who suffers from AIDS, and the Real Estate Commission is beginning to receive more inquiries from licensees on how best to handle transactions involving people who suffer from the AIDS virus. Is the fact that a buyer is affected by the disease considered a "material" fact? If so, must it be disclosed? And should prospective buyers be told that a seller, an occupant in the seller's house or a resident in the seller's neighborhood has AIDS?

In an attempt to answer these and other related questions, the Commission has studied actions talon by other real estate licensing authorities and state legislature as well as consulting HUD officials on the application of the recently amended Federal Fair Housing

Act to AIDS victims. On the basis of the best and most recent scientific and medical evidence available, it appears that AIDS cannot be transmitted through the structure or furnishings of buildings. Furthermore, according to HUD officials, persons with AIDS are considered "handicapped" and thereby afforded protection against discrimination under the Federal Fair Housing Act. Consequently, it is unlawful for a real estate agent to discriminate against anyone who has AIDS, including revealing that a prospective buyer, seller, or tenant is afflicted with the disease. When questioned as to whether a prospective buyer, seller, or tenant has AIDS, agents should state that they are prohibited by law from answering such query

In view of the preponderance of the medical evidence, the actions of other states, and the dictates of the Federal Fair Housing Act the Real Estate Commission has adopted the prevailing position that ". . . occupancy or former occupancy of real estate by persons who are or have been infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus or who have been diagnosed as having Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is not a material fact that must be disclosed in a real estate transaction." However, real estate agents should be aware that the position taken by the Commission with respect to this issue will not immunize the agent against possible lawsuits and civil litigation from dissatisfied purchasers or disgruntled sellers resulting from the agent's nondisclosure of this information.