[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 24, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 24CFR180.671]

[Page 749-751]
 
                 TITLE 24--HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
 
    CHAPTER I--OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, 
               DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
 
PART 180_CONSOLIDATED HUD HEARING PROCEDURES FOR CIVIL RIGHTS MATTERS
--Table of Contents
 
                     Subpart F_Procedures at Hearing
 
Sec. 180.671  Assessing civil penalties for Fair Housing Act cases.

    (a) Amounts. The ALJ may assess a civil penalty against any 
respondent under Sec. 180.670(b)(3) for each separate and distinct 
discriminatory housing practice (as defined in paragraph (b) of this 
section) that the respondent committed, each civil penalty in an amount 
not to exceed:
    (1) $11,000, if the respondent has not been adjudged in any 
administrative hearing or civil action permitted under the Fair Housing 
Act or any State or local fair housing law, or in any licensing or 
regulatory proceeding conducted

[[Page 750]]

by a Federal, State or local governmental agency, to have committed any 
prior discriminatory housing practice.
    (2) $32,500, if the respondent has been adjudged in any 
administrative hearing or civil action permitted under the Fair Housing 
Act, or under any state or local fair housing law, or in any licensing 
or regulatory proceeding conducted by a federal, state, or local 
government agency, to have committed one other discriminatory housing 
practice and the adjudication was made during the five-year period 
preceding the date of filing of the charge.
    (3) $60,000, if the respondent has been adjudged in any 
administrative hearings or civil actions permitted under the Fair 
Housing Act, or under any state or local fair housing law, or in any 
licensing or regulatory proceeding conducted by a federal, state, or 
local government agency, to have committed two or more discriminatory 
housing practices and the adjudications were made during the seven-year 
period preceding the date of filing of the charge.
    (b) Definition of separate and distinct discriminatory housing 
practice. A separate and distinct discriminatory housing practice is a 
single, continuous uninterrupted transaction or occurrence that violates 
section 804, 805, 806 or 818 of the Fair Housing Act. Even if such a 
transaction or occurrence violates more than one provision of the Fair 
Housing Act, violates a provision more than once, or violates the fair 
housing rights of more than one person, it constitutes only one separate 
and distinct discriminatory housing practice.
    (c) Factors for consideration by ALJ. (1) In determining the amount 
of the civil penalty to be assessed against any respondent for each 
separate and distinct discriminatory housing practice the respondent 
committed, the ALJ shall consider the following six (6) factors:
    (i) Whether that respondent has previously been adjudged to have 
committed unlawful housing discrimination;
    (ii) That respondent's financial resources;
    (iii) The nature and circumstances of the violation;
    (iv) The degree of that respondent's culpability;
    (v) The goal of deterrence; and
    (vi) Other matters as justice may require.
    (2)(i) Where the ALJ finds any respondent to have committed a 
housing-related hate act, the ALJ shall take this fact into account in 
favor of imposing a maximum civil penalty under the factors listed in 
paragraphs (c)(1)(iii), (iv), (v), and (vi) of this section.
    (ii) For purposes of this section, the term housing-related hate act 
means any act that constitutes a discriminatory housing practice under 
section 818 of the Fair Housing Act and which constitutes or is 
accompanied or characterized by actual violence, assault, bodily harm, 
and/or harm to property; intimidation or coercion that has such 
elements; or the threat or commission of any action intended to assist 
or be a part of any such act.
    (iii) Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to require an ALJ 
to assess any amount less than a maximum civil penalty in a non-hate act 
case, where the ALJ finds that the factors listed in paragraphs 
(c)(1)(i) through (vi) of this section warrant the assessment of a 
maximum civil penalty.
    (d) Persons previously adjudged to have committed a discriminatory 
housing practice. If the acts constituting the discriminatory housing 
practice that is the subject of the charge were committed by the same 
natural person who has previously been adjudged, in any administrative 
proceeding or civil action, to have committed acts constituting a 
discriminatory housing practice, the time periods in paragraphs (a) (2) 
and (3) of this section do not apply.
    (e) Multiple discriminatory housing practices committed by the same 
respondent; multiple respondents. (1) In a proceeding where a respondent 
has been determined to have engaged in, or is about to engage in, more 
than one separate and distinct discriminatory housing practice, a 
separate civil penalty may be assessed against the respondent for each 
separate and distinct discriminatory housing practice.
    (2) In a proceeding involving two or more respondents who have been 
determined to have engaged in, or are about to engage in, one or more 
discriminatory housing practices, one or more

[[Page 751]]

civil penalties, as provided under this section, may be assessed against 
each respondent.

[64 FR 6754, Feb. 10, 1999, as amended at 68 FR 12788, Mar. 17, 2003]