Source: https://www.berkleysp.com/

An apartment resident filed a housing discrimination complaint against the property manager (our policyholder) with the county’s Human Rights and Relations Department (HRRD), alleging that the property manager failed to repair defective  conditions in the apartments (water damage, mold and mildew) leading to health issues, increased utility bills and retaliation when complaints were made.

The property manager moved the resident to a different unit, but it had the same problems. To complicate matters, the  property manager found additional resident-caused damages to the vacated apartment (but could not supply  documentation). They alleged that the property manager said they wouldn’t charge the resident for those additional  damages if they dropped their housing discrimination complaint. HRRD was prepared to issue a “Determination of  Reasonable Cause” based on the failure for reasonable accommodation and the coercion attempt and asked the property  manager if they were interested in making a conciliation offer to right the situation. They were.

Berkley Service Professional was successful in negotiating the terms of a conciliation agreement—without the admission  of liability or wrongdoing by the property manager—that secured a full release from the resident for a settlement amount  of $3,500, which was about half of what was originally demanded. The agreement also required fair housing training for  all property managers, maintenance supervisors and office staff to be monitored by HRRD. Defense costs for this claim  mounted to $10,000. Both the settlement and the defense costs were within the policyholder property manager’s deductible.

Lessons learned: Housing discrimination claims need to be taken seriously, addressed and clearly documented, including a timeline of events and actions taken.