What to Know About Housing Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation

Ask a Tenants Right’s Lawyer is your chance to learn how to survive as a renter in San Francisco.  Attorney Daniel Wayne has a lot of the information you need to keep you in your home.  This month’s topic: Dealing with landlord harassment. Got a question? Send an email to alex@brokeassstuart.com and we will forward it on.

Whether you live in a large building complex in SOMA or in a victorian in Hayes Valley, any Bay Area tenant has a possibility of being mistreated by their landlord or property manager. This bad behavior can manifest in a few different forms, namely discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Or it may be that your landlord is just a jerk but not doing anything illegal. Regardless of your situation, there are things that you can do to protect yourself and to hold your landlord accountable for landlord harassment. Read on to learn how to recognize illegal landlord discrimination, harassment and retaliation against tenants, and next steps to take if you’re a victim of this behavior.

Housing Discrimination Against Tenants

We have all heard the term “discrimination.” But what does it mean in the context of housing? Typically, housing discrimination occurs when an owner, landlord, manager, or agent of the owner negatively or discriminates against a tenant or prospective tenant based on race, sex, race, religion, disability, familial status, or other legally protected characteristic. These are what are known as “protected classes.”

A Bay Area tenant is protected from housing discrimination through various federal, state, and local laws when they fall into certain categories or classes. Some of these protected classes include:

• Race
• color
• religion
• sex
• national origin
• familial status
• disability
• marital status
• sexual orientation
• age
• medical condition
• gender identity and gender expression
• immigration status

Examples of Tenant Discrimination

Tenant discrimination can take many forms and can be subtle or glaring in nature. Here are some examples of how the landlord can discriminate against you:

• Refusing to rent, or lease someone an apartment based on a protected status
• Eviction
• Failure to make a reasonable accommodation
• Changes in terms, conditions, and privileges
• Refusal of services, repairs, facilities, and improvements
• Saying that housing or an apartment is not available when it is really available
• Denying or withholding housing accommodations
• Providing inferior housing terms, conditions, privileges, facilities, or services
• Canceling or terminating a sale or rental agreement
• Placing an advertisement regarding the rental or sale of any housing accommodation that indicates any preference or information based upon race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, or any other protected characteristics
• Harassing in connection with housing services

Things to Do if You Think You’ve Suffered Housing Discrimination

Assuming a tenant can prove discrimination, an offending landlord  may be subject to fines and penalties. As a tenant who has suffered discrimination, you could be entitled to receive monetary damages. In order to pursue a discrimination claim consider taking the following actions: 1) Document the discriminatory incidents and events: Be sure to document the times and dates of the times that you think you’ve been discriminated against. Keep any correspondence from your landlord (emails, texts, screenshots, letters, messages) that indicate discrimination. 2) Contact an experienced tenants’ rights attorney: All cases are different. An experienced attorney can help direct you to what actions to take in your specific case. 3) File a complaint: Some tenants can contact the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC) or the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).

Landlord Harassment

It’s illegal for a landlord to harass a tenant. Harassment occurs when the landlord aggressive or intimidating tactics or methods to get the tenant to do something. While we typically think of harassment as meaning a direct threat, harassment can take many forms and for legal purposes is defined quite broadly and includes:

• Use of force, willful threats, or menacing conduct
• Threatening to disclose the citizenship status of the tenant
• Illegally entering a tenant’s unit
• Taking or remove tenant’s property from the unit without consent
• refusing to cash rent checks after thirty days
• refusing to make necessary or timely repairs

What Can Happen if a Landlord Harasses a Tenant?

Tenants facing severe harassment may have grounds to bring a lawsuit against their landlord for substantial monetary damages. In cities like Oakland or San Francisco with a strong local rent ordinance, tenants may even be able to recover damages for loss of their home (if they were forced to vacate), attorney’s fees and treble (tripling) of damages. However, to be successful a tenant must be able to show some sort of harm resulting from the harassment as well as be able to prove the harassment occurred. Therefore, it is critical that tenants document any perceived harassment in writing, and that you discuss this with a tenant attorney or tenant’s rights organization before making a decision to move out.

Retaliation by Landlords

In California it is unlawful for a landlord to retaliate against a tenant for asserting their rights. Specifically, if a tenant complains to a government agency – say the Department of Public Health or Department of Building Inspection, for example – it is unlawful for a landlord to evict a tenant or otherwise decrease their access to any service within 180 days. Of course, if a landlord can prove a non-retaliatory reason for an action then they may be able to overcome the presumption their action was done in retaliation. Actions from a landlord that may constitute retaliation include: increasing a tenant’s rent, causing a tenant to vacate, filing an eviction lawsuit, or threatening to do any of these acts.

If you find yourself dealing with this kind of issue, it is time to talk to someone about options. The San Francisco Tenant’s Union, Housing Rights Committee, and any number of tenant attorneys and non profits can help you evaluate the situation and strategize on a solution.