Re: Tenants harassing a disabled tenant - Landlord Forum thread 346954

Re: Tenants harassing a disabled tenant by MrDan (GA) on August 1, 2016 @23:18

Many landlords fail to understand their obligations under the Fair Housing Act.

"A landlord has a legal obligation to intervene when one tenant is harassing or disturbing the other, and if necessary, a harassed tenant could sue the landlord both to force him/her to take action (up to evicting the other tenant), as well as possibly for monetary damages"

'Courts have held that the Federal Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. งง 3604—3631 (2006) (the “Act”) did not bar a tenant’s claim against the landlord for hostile-housing- harassment based on tenant-on-tenant harassment'

A landlord would be directly liable for failing to take prompt action to correct and end harassment by a third party when the landlord knew or should have known of the harassment.

What to do as a landlord;
"If a tenant is being harassed, the tenant is not being afforded quiet enjoyment of their premises and is being discriminated against in violation of fair housing laws. Once the landlord becomes aware of the harassment, the landlord must make a “reasonable response” calculated to stop the harassment. The landlords first step should include investigating the matter, and, if warranted, issuing a warning to the tenant engaging in offensive behavior. If the harassment continues, the landlord should consider pursuing injunctive relief to enjoin the behavior, or commencing eviction proceedings against the harassing tenant"

" When a landlord knows of, but fails to address, a hostile environment, “the combined knowledge and inaction may be seen as demonstrable negligence, or as the landlord's adoption of the offending conduct and its results, quite as if they had been authorized affirmatively as the landlord’s policy."(HUD)

It is important that a landlords lease agreement includes a clause about acceptable behavior. It should specifically state that abusive behavior, intimidation, and sexual harassment are not tolerated and are grounds for eviction.

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Re: Tenants harassing a disabled tenant by Lillie (California ) on April 6, 2018 @22:35	[ Reply ]

I am grateful for the laws protecting the disabled. However, as a person living with a disability and a tenant renting from a landlord that thinks he is above the law, I will say these laws are expensive to enforce and to fight, attorneys will charge you 500 an hour to turn the law into a circus. I intend to fight my case from this owner and to appeal it and hopefully make this an example of what landlords should not do

Re: Tenants harassing a disabled tenant by Anonymous on May 22, 2018 @21:22	[ Reply ]

How did that go? We been living in a place for 7 years it was sold,the landlord let us stay and the other tenants moved,she also gave us 1 week to move into another unit, we had no help,and was a few hours late getting things out,it was hard, her handyman cuss out my daughter because she asked for a couple of hours,geaz now he was behind in his work and is taking it out on us,verbally abusive this guy is,its no reason why he should be treat ing us this away ,he caused me to fall and injured my foot,seriously, what can you do? Lawyers who protects you from this crap?