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Top 100 Frequently Asked Questions & Answers for Property Owners and Managers It is unlawful for an owner, manager or employee to create or maintain a hostile living environment for tenants because of their protected class. A housing provider can create a hostile living environment by selectively enforcing rules, making derogatory statements or slurs, ignoring maintenance requests, limiting access to amenities or taking other negative actions. Your best prevention strategy is to write and periodically distribute a non-harassment policy to tenants, employees and contractors, and to train yourself and your direct employees on how to prevent and redress all forms of harassment. If a tenant reports harassment, be sure to respond quickly and effectively, and follow up with the tenant to ensure that the problem does not recur. Finally, remember to document everything. For more detailed information, see the Sample Policy on Tenant on Tenant Harassment available from the Fair Housing Agencies of Washington State that you can use to develop your own policy. Question 39. We have trained our employees on sexual harassment law in employment. How is sexual harassment law applied in housing situations? The legal analysis for sexual harassment in housing borrows heavily from employment cases. Although HUD has not formally issued sexual harassment guidelines, some proposed HUD guidelines closely mirror employment decisions. The proposed guidelines stress the importance of having a written sexual harassment policy that is given to all tenants and taking prompt remedial action to address any harassment complaints. When you train your staff about their responsibilities and rights in an employment setting, you might consider adding a section on their responsibilities and liabilities in the housing context. Question 40. What types of conduct are considered sexual harassment? Sexually harassing conduct can be verbal (derogatory remarks, slurs, jokes, intimidation, and even threats of violence), physical (body gestures, whistling, ogling, unwelcome touching or physical violence), or visual (inappropriate sexually-oriented written materials or pictures). Under the law, a landlord can be found liable if the harassing treatment rises to the level of "severe or pervasive" conduct that creates a hostile living environment. Under this analysis, one incident will rarely constitute harassment. However, most courts hold that there is no magic number. For example, harassing episodes may have happened only two or three times, over a long period of time. But if the episodes were egregious, the courts have held that the "severe or pervasive" standard was met. Sexual harassment also occurs when a tenant's housing is conditioned on agreeing to provide sexual favors to a manager or agent of the landlord. For example, it would be sexual harassment for a landlord to demand sexual favors in exchange for a rent reduction or a delay in the tenant's eviction. The legal term for this type of harassment is quid pro quo ("this for that"). Question 41. A resident of a building we own just informed us that a maintenance person told her he would respond more quickly to her repairs if she slept with him. What should we do? This is another example of quid pro quo harassment. As owners, you are responsible for the behavior of employees, managers, maintenance workers, property management employees or other workers who come to your apartments. If a tenant complains of being sexually harassed, it's best to take prompt action intended to redress the harm and prevent it in the future. Follow up with the tenant to ensure there have been no further problems—and document everything! You can deal more effectively with this type of situation if you have a written policy that clearly outlines what a tenant can do and who to contact if he or she believes staff harassment is occurring (provide contact information for the on-site manager, the property management company, or the owner in cases where on-site staff is implicated). If a tenant is being harassed because of his protected class, you have a legal responsibility to take action to stop the harassing behavior and ensure that it does not recur. A discrimination complaint can be filed against a housing provider who allows such harassment to continue after being put on notice that it has occurred. Question 43. If a tenant complains that another tenant is harassing her and her children, what can I do? The word "harassment" means different things to different people. When a tenant reports that she has been harassed, gather more specific information about what words and behaviors were involved so you can determine whether the harassment might have been based on the tenant's protected class. If a tenant claims to have experienced threats of violence or actual physical violence, call 911 or urge the tenant to do so. You may want to develop an antiharassment policy for your staff and tenants. For more detailed information, see the Sample Policy on Tenant on Tenant Harassment available from the Fair Housing Agencies of Washington State. The following is an excerpt from that sample policy. For non-emergency situations, let the complaining tenant know you take the complaint seriously and will conduct an investigation. Start your investigation right away.
During 2001, HUD investigated a similar case in Oregon, where the female tenant believed that it was wrong to evict her for her husband's actions after she had done everything in her power to prevent further violence. HUD noted that the apartment management may have neutral reasons for their zero-tolerance policy. In the Oregon case, however, there was no evidence to support an assumption that people living near a household that has incidents of domestic violence will themselves become victims of that violence. HUD's determination pointed out that apartment managers need to take into account the individual circumstances of each case, as well as the actions a victim of domestic violence has taken to prevent a recurrence. In the Oregon case, HUD determined that sex discrimination had occurred, finding that the "policy of evicting innocent victims of domestic violence because of that violence has a disproportionate adverse impact on women and is not supported by a valid business or health or safety reason by the [apartment management]." HUD determined that "[b]ecause domestic violence affects women disproportionately, this kind of zero-tolerance policy hurts women far more than men." HUD's decision cited national statistics showing that women are five to eight times more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner, and that 90-95% of victims of domestic violence are women. The Washington State Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (RLTA), RCW 59.18, was revised in March 2004 to provide guidance for housing providers when tenants or applicants are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Question 45. When I screen prospective tenants, I deny housing to anyone who has a record of involvement with domestic violence. I don't ask whether the applicant was the victim or the perpetrator; I just don't want that type of trouble at my complex. What's wrong with that? After the 2001 Oregon case, be wary of a policy that automatically rejects a woman with a record of domestic violence on her tenant screening information. Because 90-95% of the time the victim of domestic violence is a woman, this apparently neutral policy could have a disproportionately harsher impact on women. To be on the safe side, if a woman with a record of involvement in a domestic violence incident applies for housing, ask her to provide information confirming that she was the victim of domestic violence. If she was the victim and otherwise can qualify to rent the home, you should process her application as you would anyone else's. Do not make generalizations that she will be bringing trouble to the unit—look at her circumstances individually. As of March 2004, the RLTA now addresses this issue as well. (See Question 44) If you have questions about fair housing laws and enforcement, contact the King County Office of Civil Rights at 206-296-7592 or 206-296-7596 TTY. Your comments about this Web site Updated: Dec. 28, 2004 |
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