If you're an apartment tenant, you know that paying your rent late or
not at all can get you evicted. But what if you normally pay the rent
in full and on time, and then a sudden, disability-related coma
prevents you from sending a check to your landlord on time? Should the
landlord cut you a break?
A
tenant in Palo Alto, California found herself in exactly this situation
last year -- and got evicted. But now, thanks to a settlement with her
landlord reached via a fair housing argument, the tenant is happily
back in her building.
According to the San Jose Mercury News,
the tenant's daughter let the landlord know about her mother's
condition within a week after she was rushed to the hospital. Although
the landlord reportedly indicated being okay with getting the rent
late, the landlord wasted no time in starting the eviction process. The
day she was released from the hospital, the tenant got a money order
for the full amount of the rent, but the landlord wouldn't accept it.
Then, after not receiving the notice of her court hearing, the tenant
learned that a judge ordered her to vacate her apartment.
With a
rental history now marred with an eviction, the tenant eventually found
a much smaller apartment in another town, at a much higher rent. In
addition to the financial difficulties this caused, the move to another
town also prevented visits with her daughter, who can't drive due to a
visual impairment, and grandchildren.
Fortunately for the
tenant, she enlisted the help of Project Sentinel, a local non-profit
housing counseling agency, which achieved a settlement by arguing that
the landlord violated the Fair Housing Act's (FHA) ban on
disability-based discrimination by not accepting the late rent payment.
Doing so would have been a "reasonable accommodation," which the FHA
requires landlords to make when tenants need such accommodations for a
disability.
Without admitting any liability, the landlord agreed to make things right by:
- paying the tenant $32,000;
- renting
another one-bedroom apartment in the building to her at no more than
$500 per month for five years, affording her the opportunity to visit
her children and grandchildren; - helping her repair her credit rating, which was damaged by the eviction; and
- enrolling in regular fair housing training for five years at its own expense.
Is
this a fair outcome, or is it too little, too late? Have you or anyone
you know been in a situation where you had trouble paying the rent
because of a disability?
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