Tenant on Tenant Harassment

Your Right to Fair Housing: What Can You Do If a Neighbor Is Harassing You? 

You may know that federal law prohibits a landlord, real estate agent, or property owner from discriminating against you on the basis of your race, gender, religion, ethnicity, and other protected categories. But what about a neighbor who harasses you based on one of those character traits? What do you do then? 

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals (the appellate court for federal courts in New York, Connecticut, and Vermont) recently held that an apartment building management company may be liable under the Fair Housing Act if it takes no action to prevent one tenant from racially harassing another. Although the state of the law is still in flux -- more on that below -- this decision could provide people with a way to hold landlords accountable for the actions of neighbors who discriminate against them. 

What did the Second Circuit say?

In Francis v. Kings Park Manor, a Black man, Donahue Francis, was subjected to a “brazen and relentless campaign of racial harassment, abuse, and threats,” including repeated use of the N-word, by the man who lived in the apartment next door. Although Mr. Francis complained to both the police--who ended up arresting his neighbor--and the company that managed the apartment complex, the company did nothing: It never investigated, documented, or attempted to resolve Mr. Francis’s complaints. 

Facing these facts, the Court, in a December 2019 decision, held that a landlord or management company may be liable under the Fair Housing act for intentionally discriminating against a tenant by:

choosing not to take any reasonable steps within its control to address tenant-on-tenant harassment of which it has actual notice that is specifically based on race, even though it takes steps to address other forms of tenant misconduct unrelated to race.

In other words, if the landlord has intervened to, say, require a tenant to clean up the area in front of their apartment or repair a broken window or tidy up after their dog, that landlord will be held responsible for taking steps to protect a tenant from discrimination from another tenant--so long as the landlord knows about it. With this ruling, the Court allowed Mr. Francis’s lawsuit to continue. 

The Decision May Soon Be Reversed

The decision permitting Mr. Francis’s case to move forward was made by a 2-1 vote of the three-judge panel that heard the case. Soon after the opinion came out, the full Second Circuit court -- all 13 judges -- voted to rehear the case all together, en banc. The full court will hear the case again in May, and very well may reverse the decision. It may adopt some of the arguments that the lone dissenting judge made in the first decision, the primary of which is that, while the law forbids landlords themselves from discriminating against tenants, it does not impose on them a duty to prevent tenants from discriminating against or harassing one another. 

What can you do in the face of discrimination by a neighbor? 

If you are facing this situation in which you are being targeted by a neighbor in your building for your race, color, sex, religion, ethnicity, disability, familial status (ie, if you have kids), or national origin, there are some steps you can take to try to protect yourself:

  1. Document everything. Write down each instance of harassment you are subjected to, including the date, what happened, and who was there to witness it. Take pictures or video. 

  2. Speak up. Make sure you tell your landlord or management company in writing what is going on, and what you’d like them to do about it. If they take no action, write another letter. Keep copies of any letters or emails you send.  

  3. Talk to an attorney. If you’re experiencing discrimination from a neighbor--or from your landlord, real estate agent, management company, or anyone else associated with your housing--speak to an attorney about your options. There are many ways your attorney may help you reach resolution, even without going to court, whether or not the Francis decision is reversed. 

While the Second Circuit may very well change its mind in the Francis case, there are laws on the books to help protect people facing discrimination from their neighbors and landlords. Contact KLLF to see if we can help you stand up for your rights.

Disclaimer: This post is meant to inform the reader about the state of the law. Nothing in this post is intended to nor does create an attorney-client privilege, convey legal advice, or guarantee any outcome in a legal matter.