Evidence – Interception of Oral Communications – Fair Housing Testing

HB 213 allows fair housing testers working for qualified programs (federal, state, local governments, or nonprofit civil rights organizations with specific experience) to legally record oral conversations when testing for housing discrimination. It permits this only if the tester is a party to the conversation and the recording is solely to gather evidence of a fair housing violation under federal, state, or local law. The bill strictly limits the use of such recordings - they cannot be admitted as evidence in court but may only be used to enforce fair housing laws. This directly affects fair housing organizations and their testers by creating a legal pathway to collect evidence of discrimination in housing. The law takes effect October 1, 2026.