<p>Please allow me to add that I am not an attorney, and my opinions expressed in my post
79 are not based on formal legal training, but on nearly 20 yrs of property management experience. I responded with a more practial view than one specifically citing case law.
I was remiss not stating that along with my opinion. My apologies.</p>
<p>Well I do have a legal background – and I agree with you. As a practical matter, there’s nothing to support a claim of discrimination. Flyaround’s post #80 illustrates why – he said, “HUD will most likely mystery shop” – well that works fine if you have a property owner or regularly listing multiple units, such as the owner of multiple apartment buildings. But this is a single family home being rented by someone who very likely does not own many rental properties – plus it is a very large and expensive private home - no one is going to “mystery shop”, because the landlord will rent to whoever he chooses and won’t have any other similar properties on the market to be vetted by HUD. </p>
<p>Property owners have a significant amount of leeway when choosing among prospective renters, and it is pretty difficult to prove discriminatory intent. Even if you had a scenario where he turns around and rents to 5 female students… you’d have to know a lot more about the situation – their credit worthiness, their past history as renters, etc.</p>
<p>You only have so many hours in your week. Do you really want to spend them fighting a landlord? What if you win? Then you’d have to work with the irked guy for a year.<br>
Spend the time house hunting instead.</p>