Topic: Is it against federal fair housing laws to post a sign in the gym you must be 16 years old or older to use the equipment?

Is it against federal fair housing laws to post a sign in the gym you must be 16 years old or older to use the equipment? If so is there a good alternative that can been posted?

I don’t believe it is against it. Reach out to your companies attorney and they will know

Yes it is, we just had our lawyers look into it. Same with at the pool. We are changing the wording to our fitness center to state “All occupants and guests have to be accompanied by a leaseholder”

Some health departments have rules for gym agea. If not there might be a recommended age from the equipment provider for age use for safety reasons. But if you treat everyone the same you shouldnt have a problem.

You can put that persons must be accompanied by an adult. But you cant make it seem like certain ages are outright excluded.

this exactly. Hopefully your pool says something similar? Use the same verbiage as the pool. It may even be typed in your community policies or lease documents already. Try to mimic that if it’s there.

exactly what we discussed today in FH class!!

You should refrain from singling out any age group at all. For example- children, 16 or older, etc. You could be accused of discriminating. Typically you can get your point across by limiting the facility to “lease holders only” since lease holders are at least 18 years old anyway.

We don't have lease holders. We are in a community neighborhood that consist of single family homes that are owned. We are an HOA home owners association?

I would get with you company legal counsel on this. There have been a lot of lawsuits where a specific age was posted for the common areas and amenities.

Word it as “Persons over the age of 16” - you are not referencing familial status that way.

Was told by an attorney that we are age discriminating if we put an age restriction on gym use.

We just had a violation from HUD and had to change all of our common area signage and rules to read things like “persons under the age of xx should be accompanied by an adult”. We use the recommended age based on the local ordinances set by the city of health department as a guideline and we were required to take out words like “MUST be accompanied by an adult” and changed to “should” or “it is recommended.” It cost a small fortune to change all of our signs at all of our sites.
GOOD LUCK!

I am posting on my pool that all occupants and guests must be accompanied by the leaseholder.

You also need to know your city rules/laws. We typically use same or similar verbiage as the rec centers and public pools.
Years ago NAAs suggestion was those under age 14 should be accompanied by an adult when using pool/equipment that might be unsafe.
It sounds good to say lease holders only but how many children are lease holders? I doubt that would stand up in court. Plus people whose first language is not English might not understand the verbiage.
Check your gym equipment documents and see if there language regarding age and safety.
Always good to ask local FH folks/attorney.