There's e-mail trace that their realtor forwarded to us from the owners themselves that says "because they are three guys". Admittedly, they have a really sh!tty realtor.
Playing devil's advocate, in this described scenario, I would explain that email by saying it was the "three" that concerned us. It doesn't matter that if they are guys or girls, we simply didn't want to rent to three entities. For all we know, they'd have a big fight, one would move out, and the other two may not be able to cover the rent. We'd prefer to rent to one entity. Originally, we thought we might do it, thus we asked them to fill out the necessary paperwork, but the more we thought about it, the more we decided it was not in our best interests to rent our home to three separate parties.
If his claim from the top of this page is true then he can sue both the realtor and the landlords. Ultimately the realtor would take the hit bc he is a licensed professional and should have never agreed to turn down a lessee for that reason. By allowing his clients to discriminate against a protected party he is guilty. The landlords could walk away unscathed bc the only incriminating evidence is the email from the realtor. They could deny ever saying this. The realtor would need to prove he was acting on their behalf for them to be found guilty. Either way the realtor is screwed if in fact an email was sent as the tc claims.
That sucks. But that doesn't change the fact that you have nothing to gain from a lawsuit and you're needlessly making enemies with people you know nothing about. And to make matters worse, they have your credit reports and whatever information is on your application.
Two of us still make enough money to cover rent. Hell, I make enough to cover rent by myself. They know this because we disclosed our income and credit report. Money is not the issue here. If they do play the fact that it's three entities card, if we ever find out that they rented it out to three other people, we have even more grounds for suing.
See post 28. You can't add a protected group in that sentence. One can't say bc they are three black people. In the email they would have to omit any protected group from that sentence.
And as the landlord, I would just say it was a poor choice of words - sort of like when a waitress comes to a table mixed with men and women and says "what do you guys want" where "guys" means the collective group. I just think that it is perfectly reasonable to not want to rent to three entities and even if they typed out that email to send to the realtor, they can explain it away - even if they are truly discriminating. Personally, I don't think a lawsuit would be worth it.
If you have the time then it's worth it to go after the realtor as long as you have a solid case. We have to pay fees to Real Estate Recovery Trust Account which is used to pay off prevailing parties. You can get up to 50,000 per transaction and $100,000 for all claims against a single lincensee. Also as I already said in my previous post the landlords can easily go unscathed. But in this situation if you are going to sue then it is best to bring them in as well. The realtor might have emails that incriminate them as well.
Uh, no, but good try. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that statement. That would be 100% correct english. KevC, I deal in the insurance world and I can tell you that you have grounds to sue as Xsatry has stated. You would be bringing up a lawsuit that the broker's professional liability insurance company would end up defending-every reputable broker/realtor should have this in place. You'd go to arbitration with the insurance company hired defense lawyers of the realtor if everything you say is correct. Insurance company's defense would offer you a settlement of some kind to make this go away. Do you realize though how much time this would take and what you'd actually get out of it? If you're a working professional as I've seen you state you are, you've got better things to spend your time dealing with. Personally, I wouldn't sue it and just move on. Recognize that you are in fact 'three guys' and while you feel this is an offensive & discriminating move of some sort, why don't you just respect the decision that the landlord would rather not rent to some young 20 year old guys and would prefer a family be in there for their piece of mind. IF you're the upstanding guys you suggest, you're in like the 3% of 'three guys' that would actually turn out to be good tenants. It's their investment and their property and if we didn't have attorneys running the law in the first place because insurance policies existed to sue, you really wouldn't have grounds for having your feelings hurt.
Seems that you agree that "guys" can refer to a collective group of either sex, therefore you kind of proved my point. They don't want to rent to three "guys", and they could argue that "three" is the important word. Splitting hairs, but it seems they would have a case. It would be worse for them if they wrote "men" or "males".
If I said those guys over there are cool then that could incorporate females. The manner in which the word guys was used in the email is not the same thing. Judges and lawyers are well aware how words are used in everyday common language. Personally I would not waste my time with this and move on though.
Great post. Thanks for the advice Classic and Xsatyr. I'm probably just going to write them a nasty e-mail to the realtor and landlords and leave a bad review for the realtor somewhere. I just wanted to make another "look how the world has wronged me, world" thread on the Hangout . I mean, if someone can make a thread for complaining about a upstanding citizen returning their camera in a slightly rude way, I feel like I can make a thread about this
I would write an email to the realtor's sponsoring broker as well. They would definitely want to know about this to prevent themselves from future litigation.
The only thing the realtor did wrong was be honest with you. He should've used some lame excuse to turn you down. Instead he's got discrimination accusations thrown his way. I own a couple of rental properties. I know the drill. I have to show my properties and give the renters an application. My blacklist includes families with children, dogs, section 8, and a group of guys. This category is problematic and will not take care of the rental property. Even though I have no desire to rent to them, the charade still has to be played. It's unfortunate that my time and their time is wasted, but that's how the law is set up.
Just so I am clear, if I say: I will not rent to three men - I could be sued I will not rent to three women - I could be sued I will not rent to three people - all is OK
Be a man. Don't you have better things to do... like finding a place to live. Don't be a wuss and sue.
