Landlord Question and Answer Forum

I am a rental property owner in Canton, Ohio. It seems that a new trend is developing here locally, and I wanted to get some input from other property owners. When a female tenant is evicted, they file a complaint with Fair Housing alleging sexual harassment against maintenance personnel, or contractors that have done work in their apartment. Every case has been found to have no cause, but it weighs us down in time, lost sleep and legal fees. It seems to be a popular way for evicted tenants to stick it one more time to a landlord. There is NO recourse when a tenant lies about a Fair Housing issue. There is no need for them to offer any evidence of a sexual harassment claim, other than their word. Good people have lost their jobs because of false claims. Companies find it better to be safe than sorry and fire people the day a claim is made. We have lost a good employee because of false claims. Fair Housing has ordered us to turn over every lease, application, file and financial records looking for a pattern of behavior, and have found that we have done nothing wrong. But the legal fees and time out of running a business is getting expensive. Our attorney has advised us that HUD is putting pressure for their offices to take every complaint, no matter how frivolous, and to take landlords to task. Has anyone else had this problem?

I am sorry to hear this. This is something that just shows the state of our country today, the criminal have more rights than the hard workers. There is no way a great landlord should ever have to deal with these situations. I feel that the only way to really help solve these issues are to do the most thorough background check that you can, talk to previous landlords, google the tenants name do a full tenant screening with criminal and credit history. I have found the more time you put in upfront the less time you need to spend in the end. I hope this helps but stories like this hurt and downright piss me off. Stay honest and keep working hard and you will push through. Good Luck !

Posted by Justin R, IL on Thursday, July 28, 2016