The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that it settled a Fair Housing Act (FHA) discrimination lawsuit with the owners/managers of more than 70 residential properties in West Virginia to resolve allegations that the property manager sexually harassed female residents and applicants. Under the terms of the deal, which was approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, the defendants will pay a total of $600,000 (that is not a misprint) in damages and civil monetary penalties. Additionally, the individual manager was required to transfer his ownership percentage in these properties as well as to cease his role in managing them and agree to never again work in the property management business.
The litigation started with four female residents filing complaints with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The government’s subsequent investigation revealed that the property manager harassed female residents and applicants (including engaging in unwanted and unwelcome sexual acts, touching and groping, offering housing benefits to female residents in return for the performance of sexual acts, verbal advances, entering units without permission, and threats to take adverse action against female residents when they refused or objected to his sexual advances) from 2006 through 2015.
The agreement mandates that the defendants pay $500,000 to individuals harmed by the discriminatory conduct and another $100,000 to the United States as a penalty for violating the law. The dollar amounts here are significantly above a traditional FHA case, but the egregious nature of the alleged conduct is what drove the large financial numbers.
In this day and age, it should go without saying that residential property owners and management companies must provide fair housing training to ensure none of our employees engage in conduct anything like what was asserted in this complaint. It will be really difficult to explain to a judge how conduct like this was permitted to continue for ten years. Enough said.
Just A Thought.
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