The black mother of five children responded to an ad on Rochester Craigslist for the sale or rental of a four-bedroom Amherst, New York single-family home. The rental agent, a licensed New York real estate broker, was listed as the contact. She called the broker and arranged to view the premises. She was met by the owners, who appeared “startled” by her arrival. They asked her how many children she had before stating that they could not rent to her as they were going to sell the house.

The mother reported her situation to Housing Opportunities Made Equal, Inc.(HOME). The property continued to be advertised on Rochester Craigslist for the next month with the broker still listed as the contact. In response to her report, HOME initiated an investigation employing two testers to respond to the broker’s ad. The mother and HOME sued the broker and the owners in United States District Court for the Western District of New York in Rochester, New York for violating the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and New York Human Rights Law (NYHRL) for:

(a) Misrepresenting that the property was no longer available because the owners intended to sell it. The brokercontinued to advertise the property for sale or rent on Craigslist even after the owners informed the motherthat the property was no longer available; and
(b) Offering to rent the property without requiring an application of Tester #2 (a white woman playing the role of a single mother with an adult daughter ), but not Tester #1( a black woman playingthe role of a single mother with four children). The brokerresponded to Tester #1’s phone message asking for an application by making an appointment to meet, while Tester #2 was offered the immediate opportunity to rent the property, without an application, a day earlier. Additionally, after failing to keep his original appointment with Tester #1, the broker called a week later and informed Tester #1 that the owners had decided to sell, the very reason given by the the owners for rejecting the mother, a month earlier.

The broker moved to dismiss the claims against him because:

(a) He did not engage in any discriminatory behavior;
(b) He had no decision-making authority;
(c) He did not act as the owner’s’ sale agent; and
(d) That neither the FHA nor the NYHRL apply here because the property isa single family home.
The court denied his motion, ruling that the complaint sufficiently pled facts showing his involvement with the ownersto establish that he may have knowingly acted at the behest of owners engaged in a discriminatory practice as he:
(a)was the listed contact on the property’s Craigslist advertisement; (b)organized viewings of the property and carried out the owner’s instructions following such meetings;
(c) was responsible for providing rental applications;
(d) knowingly treated the various applicants differently, agreeing to meet in response to a request for an application in one case, while conveying the owner’s wish to rent immediately to another; and
(e) continued advertising the property even after the motherhad been informed that the owners intended to sell the property.

Furthermore, in order for a single family home to be exempt from the provisions of the FHA, the owner may not use any rental services of a broker or agent, or advertise, post or publicize an intent to discriminate.

If you own rental property in Rochester and have legal issues that need to be addressed, call Bob Friedman, a Landlord Attorney in Rochester, at 585-484-7432 for a legal consultation.