This is the kind of question that comes up whenever renters and lawmakers end up in the same room: can a landlord charge more rent to someone paying with an ITIN instead of a Social Security number? The honest answer has two parts, and both matter.
Both the federal Fair Housing Act and Nebraska law list exactly who a landlord cannot treat differently. The list is specific — it does not include immigration status, ITIN status, or how you pay.
So a landlord who charges an ITIN-paying tenant more, by itself, hasn't necessarily broken that list. That's part one, and it's the part that ends most conversations too early.
Part two: "not on the list by name" isn't the same as "always legal." If an ITIN requirement or surcharge functions as a stand-in for national origin — if, in practice, it lands almost entirely on immigrants from a particular country or region — the effect can be national-origin discrimination even if the landlord never says a word about anyone's origin. Courts don't require a landlord to say the quiet part out loud; a neutral-looking policy with a discriminatory effect can still violate the Fair Housing Act.
Immigration status and ITIN status are not named categories under the Fair Housing Act or Nebraska law. A landlord can ask how you'll pay and can decline forms of payment they don't accept.
A surcharge or higher rent tied to ITIN use, if it falls disproportionately on people of a particular national origin, can be challenged as national-origin discrimination — the same category already on the list above.
The doctrine above — a facially neutral policy with a discriminatory effect can still violate the Fair Housing Act — is confirmed against the Court's own opinion, not a summary. Texas Dept. of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., 576 U.S. 519 (2015), decided June 25, 2015, 5–4, Kennedy writing for the majority. The "robust causality" requirement is at 576 U.S. at 542; the business-justification guardrail is at 576 U.S. at 541.
What this tag does not mean: it does not mean the underlying claim is beyond dispute — HUD proposed rescinding its own disparate-impact regulation in January 2026 (91 Fed. Reg. 1475), which would leave the doctrine to courts rather than agency rule. It means the citation itself checks out against the primary source, as of the date above.
The amount you were quoted or charged, the date, and what your landlord said about why. Keep any text, email, or listing that shows it.
Housing discrimination complaints have a one-year deadline from when it happened. Waiting to see if it "sorts itself out" can cost you the right to file at all.
You don't need a lawyer to file. See the contacts below.