Eight FHEO guidance documents were withdrawn effective 17 September 2025 and may not be relied on as authoritative, while the statutes and regulations they interpreted remain in force

xp.fair_housing.eight_fheo_guidance_documents_withdrawn_effective_september_2025 · v1.0.0

FHEO withdrew eight guidance documents effective 17 September 2025, publishing notice on 6 April 2026. The withdrawn documents are: guidance on applying the Fair Housing Act to advertising through digital platforms (2024); FHEO 2020-01 on assessing a request to have an animal as a reasonable accommodation; the FHEO memorandum on source of income testing under the Fair Housing Assistance Program (2024); FHEO Notice 2013-01 on service animals and assistance animals; the FHEO statement on special purpose credit programs (2021); the 2007 final guidance to federal financial assistance recipients on the Title VI prohibition against national origin discrimination affecting limited English proficient persons; the 2021 implementation of Executive Order 13988; and the 2022 implementation of the Office of General Counsel guidance on the use of criminal records. HUD states these have been removed from active use and should not be relied upon as authoritative, and that handbooks and internal training materials referencing them are being revised. What did NOT change is the law: HUD states that any actions that do not comply with the text of the Fair Housing Act continue to be subject to enforcement, and that complainants may file a civil action in federal or state court within two years regardless of any enforcement determination HUD makes. Several state agency compliance manuals in this corpus still direct owners to follow the withdrawn criminal-records guidance by name; those state requirements stand as the agency's own, and the corpus records both facts without reconciling them.

Confidence

high

Effective from

2025-09-17

Last reviewed

2026-09-07