Anger...

[danaeris]

So, after all that sexist discriminatory shit about wanting to rent to a man who could help maintain the place, and saying how she'd have an open house Friday and rent to the best tenant she could find, Susan Openheim has decided to rent the place to the first men she showed it to.

I guess that's her right, but she could have been honest with me! *angry*

Anyway, I get off work at 3 p.m.... question is, do I then head downtown and look at more places?

Edit Anything interesting going on in the city tonight, or anyone want to hang out? If I had social foo to attend or people to see, it would give me double reasons to go wander around the annex and call rental numbers, but if not, I'll just go home.

Comments

[darthsunshine.livejournal.com]

I've often wondered (but have never spent the time looking into) how discrimination laws apply to things like this, because I've seen it happen both directions (that a landlord prefers renting to a female tenant, or to a male tenant), and regardless of which it is, it doesn't seem like it should be a legal criteria to use.

I'm very sorry this has happened to you, and I wish you much luck in finding exactly the right place to call home.

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure its illegal, but I can't prove anything and don't care that much. I guess this saved us from having a sucky landlady. But the whole experience is just disappointing.

[darthsunshine.livejournal.com]

*nod* The times I've seen it, I've thought/felt similarly--not worth the effort of following up. I'm sorry. *hug* if you want one.

[aoibhill.livejournal.com]

If it's a shared housing situation, it's legal for people to discrimate about anything they want (religion, race, sexual orientation, etc.) because they are sharing the living space. Otherwise, it's illegal.

[aberrantvirtue.livejournal.com]

I know it seems like it should be ilegal (and in California there are equal opportunity housing laws in some situations) but I believe that in the case of private enterprise renting (i.e. the person owns the house, and is renting to an individual) that it may be legal. You can probably choose who to rent to, just like you could choose who to sell something to.

[princeofwands.livejournal.com]

I that that like with an at-will employment dismissal, one can choose who to rent to on any criteria, but disclosing the actual criteria can lead to problems.

In this case, the landlady would have done better to keep her mouth shut.

OTOH, there's nothing to imply that the whole rental application process should be based solely on quantifiable criteria and in the end, landlords should select tenants to best protect their investment.

In my recent house hunting adventure, I had landlords complain to me about previous tenants who would call up because the "kitchen light broke" only to arrive and find that the bulb had burned out. I can understand wanting to avoid renting to that sort of tenant. One thing we did that ingratiated us with our new landlords was ask if they minded if we wired the house for internet... demonstrating a willingness to do the improvement ourselves for the cost of their permission.

[yiab.livejournal.com]

every time i've been looking for housing, the ads have a section for "gender preference" with regards to tenants - the renter can put in there "female only", "female preferred", "no preference", "male preferred" or "male only". i say renter rather than landlord since these ads are sometimes placed by groups of students looking for another one to rent a house as a group.

in any case, since these are available options in publically placed ads, i sincerely doubt it's illegal to rent based on gender. of course, it really does rely on the renter being honest about their preferences, which didn't seem to happen in your case.

[tocityguy.livejournal.com]

If it's not illegal, it should be.

Ah well, if the people there are truly like this, renting there really isn't a great idea anyways.

[freefloat.livejournal.com]

Sounds to me like the landlady is simply trying to get a tenant to do her job for her (maintaining or upgrading the place)...
and to PAY for the privilege!!

Some people. Honestly. Hope her new male tenants start bitching at her to fix stuff that's broken rather than attend to it themselves. That'll show her. Heh.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

People that I know that did their own maintenance on rental properties got to deduct it from the rent.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

AFAIK, they're legally required to let you do that, though I'm not sure how far geographically that legality extends.

[lastmx.livejournal.com]

-IIRC from high school law class (as taught by Don Kendal at Interact) the Charter of Rights and Freedoms doesn't apply to interactions between two private individuals.
-Having been both a landlord and a tenant I'm wishing I'd been a bit more choosy (read: discriminatory) in some of my past selections of roomates. (long and painful stories)
-Given the choice between a tenant who can fix things and a tenant who can't (I'm not saying that's you) the landlords choice is obvious.
-When I've rented less than ideal places I've offered to fix things for the landlord (if he/she pays for materials and my time). My home repair skills have been very useful over the years (although I'm deeply scarred from all the Saturday morning cartoons I missed when my Dad conscripted me to help fix things), and paid for most of my university education.

[jackspryte.livejournal.com]

Yeah it just reminds me that any laws/rules that are there to protect us from overt discrimination are useless in society.

Practically speaking if someone is going to discriminate there isn't alot one can do. I have often considered the crazy lady outside a place of business or home with a sign approach (I saw someone in Mississauga actually doing this outside a spa the other day) but I lack the bravado.

Society is a largely fractious set of groups that don't always work well with one another. I wish there was more "human" reasoning "happening".

I think the modern media and human condition leads to a certain level of paranoia that leads people to believe in significant human drama (like the one's on TV). Society has become relitely isolated and insular. This leads people to a incriminate search for "evil" wherever they suspect thay may find it...pedophiles, serial killers, psychos and bad guys under every rock.

Hence they are justified in their discrimination.

Now this particular woman is just sexist...a throwback. Have faith in Karma that's all we can do.But it does help support my own position that people suck!...Unless they don't!