LLs can be sued for what they SAY or what the complainer SAYS they SAID.

This was a He said / She said. LL denies. The article did not mention any evidence other than what the res SAYS he SAID.

Keepa u mouth SHUT!

Result:

-$45,900 fine

-LL's attty bill

-barred from his own business

BRAD

From today's FHCCI newsletter:

"Today, the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana (FHCCI) and an Indianapolis resident announce a settlement in a federal Fair Housing Act lawsuit against Henry Long, owner and landlord of several Indianapolis rental dwellings. As part of the consent decree, Mr. Long will pay $45,900 in monetary relief to resolve the lawsuit which alleged he sexually harassed a female tenant.

The lawsuit was filed in August 2020 in the Southern District of Indiana alleging that Mr. Long engaged in discrimination and harassment against one of his female tenants by requesting that she engage in sex with him because she could not pay the monthly rent after being furloughed from her job due to the COVID pandemic. Such requests are considered a form of sexual harassment and are unlawful under the Fair Housing Act. Mr. Long has denied the allegations and admitted no wrongdoing.

>>>

Under the consent decree, which was the result of a settlement and also signed by the court, Mr. Long will be barred from having any interaction with tenants. He will be required to retain and pay for services of a property manager to handle all day-to-day operations of the residential rental properties that he owns, including contact with tenants and potential tenants. Mr. Long and any agents shall also attend yearly fair housing trainings for the duration of the decree, along with other relief. "

NE, he wasn’t convicted. He settled.

Here is a big part of the reasonings; If everything went his way, a jury trial would cost a lot more than the $45k settlement amount.

Sisco. I understand that. A landlord I know here did the same for $6,000 for a steering suit. Except, he admitted to the wrongdoing, albeit insignificant overall.

The problem I have with settling in this case, is how do you ever live that down publicly?

First, I am all for Fair Housing laws. Not following them is just stupid. Get trained and treat everyone the same.

We have come a long way from the past. Discrimination is so easy but does so much harm.

LLs - Gotta wrap your head around THIS...it's not regular court. Hearsay counts.

Fair Housing folks do not have a sense of humor. This is deadly serious stuff to them.

From what I have observed over the years their job is to make an example out of someone - a scapegoat, get it on the news, drag it out until the LL gives up, (cheaper to pay the huge fine than pay the lawyers for another year) all to educate the public and collect fines. They are funded by the fines they collect.

The cases I have followed were SETTLED because the atty fees can drag on forever. Better to pay a fine now than pay attys for another year.

With only a $45K fine I see this as a settlement, not a conviction or admission of guilt. See that, they let him off the hook.

And you cannot be put in jail for what you say so they hit him for money.

If you have ever been sued like this it drains all your energy and attitude.

It's not a court with rules of evidence. LL is guilty until proven innocent. She said he did something and now he has to prove he didn't. How can you prove you did not say something.

I expect this to get worse with the extra entitlement thinking the govt has recently taught renters with the moratoriums.

In this case I don't see how she was harmed. Yes her feelings might have been offended. He did not deny her housing. No mention of eviction or 100 other women coming forward to complain. I suspect every woman must learn how to turn down advances or lewd comments.

BRAD

I was jailed 4 days. Cost 8K in atty fees to defend myself. Took one years to be found not guilty.

Women was evicted for non pay of rent. Later in the day she broke back in and put her stuff BACK inside. Now I had to call the police due to B&E. Several police come and I ask that she just be removed-- sergeant said at this point it's out of your hands. She was arrested and booked. When she got out of jail-- after 10 hours she had a warrant issued for my arrest for taking her stuff to storage. My atty had told me just put it back outside. I told atty naw they're going to steal her blind -- so I put her stuff on a trailer and placed in storage garage. Her car I placed in a lot up the street. I didn't get arrested but had a court hearing. She got on the stand and started boo wooing how I had her arrested and the judge went bonkers-- HE YELLS OUT-- YOU HAD HER ARRESTED? Bailiff take him away. My atty and witnesses were B sh *. Atty is yelling what's the charge-- judge says I don't know yet but I'll find something. With that he left the court room for 45 minute and came back with grand theft auto for moving her car. Serious folks-- took 5K for bail and 8K in atty fees to be found innocent.

There's much more but that's the gist of it. Oh I did find out where the most racist people in the world work. The Ari can American guards were training the Ari-can American prisoners WHO THEY SHOULD BE BLAMING FOR THEIR INCARSERATION. My cell mate has just gotten out of state prison for murder after 25 years and was rearrested one day later for coming onto the Sheriffs wife-- Xwife. I learned so much from that experience.

We had no blankets or sheets-- the guys were untapping the mattresses and crawling into he plastic covering to stay warm.

Bet you never knew this-- mustard packs used for baloney sandwiches-- are saved as the dessert. YUM YUM.

In 8 hours of watching you could see the drugs coming in and who was distributing them-- how they did it was amazing.

NE, if your making good money and enjoy the biz no need to get out of it. If your really worried about something like that happening hire an assistant to deal with the tenants and you do the things that make you happy where you don’t have to deal with them.

Besides that, if you get decent tenants you don’t have to worry. Someone who would do something like this would be a tenant I wouldn’t have in the first place Think about what kind of person would lie about this to get money. My tenants are decent people who make good money . The

NE, I would say it is like that this LL did nothing wrong based on the fact that the Fair housing court settled this cheap.

Blog: Defense of Men

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In California (Los Angeles) if a landlord threatens eviction for non-payment of rent, the landlord will be fined $10,000 each occurrence. This can be just a 3 Day Notice to Rent or Quit!

If an owner hires a contractor to do work and there is "Lead" in the painted surface, then the owner and/or contractor will be fined $37,500 per day for work being done not:

a) Using Lead Safe Practices

b) Give a Lead Booklet to the tenant

As a contractor and landlord the City, County, State and Federal authorizes have tired to held me accountable for not following "their standard". Never mind it goes against common sense, contracting law, current codes and mandated agency guide lines.

myob:

That woman was mad because she got put out. Retaliation is always a risk in that situation. This is a classic case of no good deed goes unpunished. I would have put her stuff on the street and let her deal with it.

There is very likely much more to this -- I suspect that there likely was some more "evidence" involved. In fact, the court case actually shows a long string of text messages where she contacted him immediately after being furloughed to let him know that she had been and that she might have trouble making the April payment, but would do her best to get it, thought she'd be back to work by May, and offered to send her stimulus check as soon as it arrived. In other words, she didn't sit on the news that she might be late with the rent -- she immediately took action to let him know well in advance (it still wasn't due for another 2+ weeks) and presented solutions (when she thought she'd work again, that she'd pay when her stimulus check arrived, and so on). That sounds pretty responsible to me -- if I have a tenant that is that pro-active if they worry they MIGHT be late with the next rent, then I appreciate that and normally will work with them a bit -- especially under these circumstances.

But instead of doing that, he then texts her that they can "figure this out together" and then asks her if she has a ride to come over and spend the night with him. She even doesn't get it at first and continues to try to confirm what he means -- even flat out asking if he means something sexual -- and he says "absolutely!"

She then immediately started looking for a new place and was out by the 1st of the following month.

Again, it looks nothing to me like this was some poor LL who got a raw deal. There was evidence that it was exactly what she accuses him of. I think he got off pretty easy with these fines.

For those that want a bit more info... I find it very interesting that the guy didn't even OWN the duplex where this happened. He owns OTHER rentals in the area. And he identified himself as the "Landlord/Lessor/Agent" on the lease itself -- but it turns out that someone else actually owns the property.

So, was he just the property manager? I don't know IN laws, but to do that in MY state as he did, he'd have to be a licensed real estate broker or he'd be violating the law. But, that's a whole other issue.

The guy was an idiot. And got caught. I have no sympathy for him.

- John...

This TV station link has what appear to be the full text conversation and a response to the lawsuit from Long - he's 70.

www.wishtv.com/news/local-news/landlord-accused-of-asking-tenant-for-sex-as-rent-payment-after-she-was-furloughed-due-to-covid-19/

Stupid stupid stupid.

BRAD

Los Angeles City and County can convert a civil violation into a criminal case, by checking a box on a form! They say the person, landlord or contractor won't comply and the violation is serious. Like in my case the City never told me about any issues, even when I went to each department prior to buying the property. They after closing escrow I returned to the various agencies and registered my self as the new owner, paying the necessary Housing and Rent Stabilization fee's.

Land lord was dumb and inappropriate, no question. Penalty was a bit harsh, possibly, but deserved and hopefully it serves as a warning to others.

Got me thinking... I've heard the situation go the other way where a tenant offer "favors" in exchange for rent. I wonder what the penalty--if any--would be in that scenario? Would the land lord be allowed to evict instantly, no contest? Would the tenant be forced to pay for the entire lease due to the violation and move out immediately? Or would the land lord be expected to just deal with it as part of doing business?

Or what if it were a false accusation and the LL was innocent but suffered harm to reputation and possibly difficulty with his/her spouse due to distrust created by a "pranking" tenant? We've all heard of false accusers who later slink away unpunished. Do the scales of justice balance in these kinds of scenarios?

Case in point: I used to teach public HS English. The first year in my media class I had a senior girl who liked to act flirty to get out of trouble. One time she came up to me and grabbed my arm and said, "I like your shirt; it really shows off your arms." Yeah, okay....

Had another freshman gal who point blank asked me in front of class "Mr. (my last name)" have you ever had sex?" Neither of them get into any trouble. Other than a mild verbal warning from the administration, nothing was done.

I was warned by college profs and fellow teachers alike: NEVER be in a room with a female student by yourself. Always have doors opened and preferably another teacher in the room.

My message to male land lords....don't give your tenants ANY excuse. Don't go in the home when no one else is there. Don't go in the home when only a female is there. Don't go in a home when only someone underage is there.

I thought we were told to "work with a tenant" to avoid an eviction?

S i d you got me thinking as well about your question (What if the roles were reversed in the sex favor situation-- What/could there be a penalty?).

I did once get propositioned by a prospective tenant during the application process and I can't see any way there could have been any penalty brought. I pretended to ignore it and shrugged it off, found other valid reasons to deny (there were plenty).

Who would I have complained to? What could they do?

Unfortunately even in today's progressive society there remain heavy biases against women in sex abuse cases and every instance or complaint deserves serious attention and scrutiny.

I have read and re-read the text conversation multiple times. I cannot find where he mentioned anything about trading favors for rent.

Brad, I've never thought of you as naive before now, but are you serious??

The tenant contacts the LL to say that they might have a problem with rent and the LL asks if she has a ride to come over and stay the night with him? After suggesting that they try to "work it out" in some way? She then goes on to try to clarify and asks if he means "in a sexual way?" and he answers "absolutely."

It was clearly implied what was going on there. And suggesting otherwise is just unfair and inappropriate, IMO. Do you REALLY not see what the LL was suggesting there? You think a tenant called to talk about not being able to pay the rent and the LL just decided THAT was the best time to start hitting on her? And it was completely unrelated to the rent?? Come on, Brad, you're smarter than that.

It doesn't have to be a flat out "I will give you free rent for sex" statement to be sexual harassment.

- John...

It wasn't even "implied." It was baldly stated. "Come over, stay the night, we can work it out." "In a sexual way?" "Absolutely."

How is there any other way to interpret those words?