October 2009 Coach's Quiz

We have given you seven rules to help you resolve potential fair housing problems before they turn into formal complaints or costly lawsuits. Now let's look at how the rules might apply in the real world. Take the COACH'S QUIZ to see what you have learned.

INSTRUCTIONS: This month's quiz describes events that allegedly occurred in an actual court case. Put yourself in the position of the manager and ask yourself: Could you have done something differently to resolve the dispute before it wound up in court?

JUDGE FOR YOURSELF

You are the manager of a community, but you were not in the office on the day that an African-American couple responded to an advertisement in a free publication announcing vacancies and promoting “NO MOVE-IN COSTS.” They came with their car loaded, looking to immediately lease a unit for the wife, who was being transferred from a job out of state. The leasing agent explained that the promotion would allow the wife to pay only the first month's rent—no security deposit or other fees—on the condition that her application, including a credit check, was approved.

After touring sample units, the wife agreed to rent a studio and filled out a standard application form, which authorized the leasing agent to do a credit check. The wife said that she read and understood that language before signing the application.

The leasing agent left the couple and went into another room to run a credit history with an online reporting company. When she returned, the leasing agent said the credit check showed no credit history, so she asked to run a credit history on the husband. The couple agreed, but the leasing agent came back to say the credit check showed no history for the husband either. The couple insisted that they each had an established credit history and demanded that the leasing agent try again. When the leasing agent returned, she said that she had tried twice more, but that she could not locate either of them in the online service's system.

As an alternative, the leasing agent suggested that they provide specific account numbers, credit card information, and other information about their creditors, but the couple refused. The leasing agent said that the wife would now be required to pay a security deposit in the amount of one month's rent plus a nonrefundable move-in fee of roughly a half-month's rent. The couple, who were frustrated after spending about three hours in the office, refused and left. Apparently, it was too late in the day to find an available unit nearby, so they drove back with their vehicle still packed.

The following week, the wife rented a unit in a different community, which used the same credit reporting service and confirmed that she had good credit. According to the wife, she later contacted the credit reporting service, which said that its records showed that no one from your community had requested a credit history for either of them.

The couple sued your community for deliberate racial discrimination in violation of the FHA. During pretrial proceedings, you learned that the leasing agent did not understand how to use the online system to run credit reports, and that she didn't know that she had to click on a particular link to view someone's credit history. Although a coworker also reported having the same trouble accessing credit histories through the system, it also appeared that the leasing agent had mistyped the couple's Social Security numbers each of the three times she tried to enter them into the system.

Could you have done anything to resolve this matter before it reached this point?