I was denied for an apartment on the grounds that my prospective landlord called my current residence and asked the landlord there if he was aware of the fact that my boyfriend was living with me. He said no. According to the prospective landlord this constitutes dishonesty and is grounds for denial. The kicker is my boyfriend does NOT live with me. Nor did I ever say to the prospective landlord that he did. I said that he would be living with me when I moved, not right now. I have a roommate right now and she is on the lease. Everything here is legit. I knew that the prospective landlord wanted a reason to deny us because she went on and on about how we weren't married on the phone and also mentioned several times about "If he has a criminal record...." (referring to my boyfriend) Not only do neither of us have a criminal record, but we have five degrees between us. This is insane. She had the audacity to claim that I said something that I did not say. What do I do?
2006-10-22 04:10:07 · 12 answers · asked by A.R. 4 in Business & Finance ➔ Renting & Real Estate
Lets add to that shall we?
I've been in these apartments numerous times and not once have I ever seen anyone living there who wasn't white when our community is split 50/50....as a matter of fact...it seems the only people there are middle aged white people. I suspect her discriminatory practices go far beyond the unmarried. She's also trying to palm my security deposit. What fun....
2006-10-22 13:17:34 · update #1
What you have here is discrimination based on marital status. In some places, it is illegal for a prospective landlord to discriminate on prospective tenants because of their marital status. You will have to research the landlord-tenant law in that area.
It is not defamation because she did not make a false statement about you. Instead, she posed a question, even though she knew the answer. If your current landlord decided not to renew your lease based a statement made by her, and your landlord stated that was the reason for your lease to not be renewed, then you might have a case for defamation. But according to what you wrote, that did not happen.
You have to be aware that it is very hard to prove rental discrimination cases as the legal system gives landlords a lot of leeway on who they choose to rent apartments to. You will always have one landlord or another that will discriminate against you for whatever reason and that is unfortunate. They should go by how you will treat the apartment and your ability to pay, not who you are or are not married to. That is none of their business.
My advice is to you is to find another place to live. This new landlord obviously had problems with you living with your boyfriend and you two not be married. It can be a very bad experience and your home is supposed to be a sacred place where all of the troubles of the world stop at your front door. Move on. That was not the place for you. If you find this issue continuing to occur in your search, then I would seek legal advice and keep track of all of the landlords having this issue. Good luck!
2006-10-22 05:43:48 · answer #1 · answered by coollady141974 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, the thing I have to ask here is how often is your boyfriend at your apartment? Does he stay overnight? Even though he is not on the lease and if he is there a good part of the time, especially overnight, it constitutes that he lives there. Now the comment about criminal records was not called for. If she had any negative factual information(did she do a background check on you and your boyfriend?)then she has the right of refusal. Landlords also do credit checks on people, and if they were consistanly late with the rent or didn't pay it or filed bankruptcy, that also counts as a risk. If your current landlord told your prospective landlord that you damaged the apartment in any way, that would also make the prospective landlord deny you. Morality has nothing to do with renting an apartment. I wasn't married to my fiance' when we looked for an apartment, but I was nervous that we told the landlord we were. We married months later anyway. Sounds like all in all the prospective landlord was borderline discriminatory. Can you prove it? Not really, and it's not worth your time or money to bother. Just go find another nice apartment and leave that landlord to his/her closemindedness.
2006-10-22 04:21:46 · answer #2 · answered by hazeleyedbeauty1967 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You have been trapped by a Grouch Marx question. She asked if the landlord was aware your boyfriend was living with you. She knew he wasn't and that was not her question. Whatever the landlord asked, it gave her the reason to reject your application. You didn't want to rent from her anyway because her morality would have been in your face all the time. She is right. Everyone who doesn't agree with her is wrong. She did you a favour by rejecting you. Could you really live with a fundamentalist that is that bigoted? In 2 months you would have been looking for a new apartment. Now you have a 2 month jump on the search.
2006-10-22 04:21:38 · answer #3 · answered by St N 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Oh gracious everyone. This is not, on the surface, a case of defamation or a fair housing violation. It is a matter that the boyfriend either was or was not in residence at the old place, and a chat was begun between the new and old landlord. If you really want to rent the new place, I agree with a prior posting that recommends that you and your boyfriend visit the new landlord and person, to explain what has happened.
2006-10-22 09:56:48 · answer #4 · answered by Andrew Clauer 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all that's defamation of character so you have her on that right away - next I'd get ahold of the renters rights laws and see if there's anything in there that can help you. But ultimately she owns the apartment and can choose who gets to live there so I don't think there's much hope for that one - just start looking for another apartment
2006-10-22 04:19:42 · answer #5 · answered by Angelina 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's defamation of character to make false statements about a person. If the injured party has suffered because of these statements, damages can be assessed by a small claims court.
2006-10-22 04:14:46 · answer #6 · answered by kam_1261 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
while renting often 2 months of lease and a protection deposit is needed formerly moving in. i do no longer see the place you're prepared to grant something greater to get the place of living than what's anticipated. Your b/f might could desire to have solid credit. you in basic terms point out that yours isn't that great. It seems such as you may want a co-signer.
2016-10-02 13:41:04 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you and boyfriend could go to the new landlord and introduce yourselves in person.
that often works better than telephone conversation.
if she likes the look of you she will be open to your explanation of the truth about yourselves.
otherwise, forget it and look for a new apartment.
2006-10-22 05:04:16 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You notify your Rental Board or Rental Authorities in the region. Explain same as you did here. They will follow up, as they should, if their diligent?..
2006-10-22 04:40:42 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Contact your area Magistrate for "renter's rights"
2006-10-22 04:12:43 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋