Updated: 10/12/23
Key takeaways:
- Landlords play a crucial role in addressing sexual harassment by ensuring safe living conditions, as neglecting this can harm tenants and lead to legal and financial liabilities.
- In the Fair Housing Act, landlords have a legal duty to prevent and address any sexual harassment within their properties, covering situations involving tenants, staff, or visitors, such as quid pro quo and hostile environment harassment.
- Landlords must proactively address sexual harassment on their properties. They must also refrain from any actions that could be perceived as retaliation against the victim or the reporter.
Sexual harassment goes beyond workplace or social contexts; it also happens in rental properties and directly impacts the safety and sanctity of tenants’ homes. Landlords, as key custodians of safe living environments, must prioritize addressing this issue. Ignoring sexual harassment not only endangers tenants’ well-being but also exposes landlords to legal and financial risks. This blog post emphasizes the importance of addressing sexual harassment, highlighting its various forms and emphasizing the role of landlords in fostering secure and inclusive rental communities, benefiting both tenants and landlords.
Understanding sexual harassment
Sexual harassment can be broadly defined as unwelcome sexual advances, comments, or conduct that create a hostile, intimidating, or offensive environment for individuals. In the context of rental properties, this refers to any behavior or actions that tenants find unwelcome, inappropriate, or demeaning due to their sexual nature. It’s important to note that sexual harassment can occur between tenants, between tenants and property staff, or even between tenants and third parties visiting the property.
Fair Housing Act on sexual harassment
Now, the Fair Housing Act provides protection against discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and/or familial status. Within those parameters, sexual harassment is considered a form of discrimination. Further, under the Fair Housing Act, if a landlord or anyone in the landlord’s employ engages in any sort of discriminatory behavior, the landlord can be held responsible.
With that said, landlords need to know that any uninvited sexual advance, solicitation, request, or demand for sexual compliance is considered harassment. Within that definition, the courts recognize basic types of sexual harassment.
Quid pro quo sexual harassment
This occurs when a housing provider, or one of their employees, agents, or contractors makes access or retention of housing (or housing-related services or transactions) conditional upon the performance of sexual acts.
Hostile environment sexual harassment
This occurs when one of the employees, agents, contractors, or another tenant of a housing provider engages in sexual behavior that alters the terms or conditions of tenancy and creates an environment of intimidation, hostility, offensiveness, or an otherwise less desirable atmosphere. Under this form of sexual harassment, claims can be filed even if the alleged victim didn’t experience the loss of housing or another tangible economic loss.
Both of the above apply equally to mixed-gender and same-sex situations. Further, the harassment does not have to stem from sexual desire. It can be motivated by hostility toward a particular sex.
Under the Fair Housing Act, property owners and property managers are required by law to refrain from engaging in sexual harassment. They are also required to step in and stop harassment if they become aware of it, or even if it can be proven they should have been aware of it. Because of this, the property owner can be held liable whenever harassment occurs on their property.
Other forms of sexual harassment in rental properties include but are not limited to:
- Verbal harassment: This includes unwelcome comments, jokes, or taunts of a sexual nature. For example, making explicit remarks about a tenant’s appearance or making sexually suggestive comments can constitute verbal harassment.
- Physical harassment: Unwanted physical contact, such as touching, groping, or assault, falls under this category. This can occur between tenants, property staff, or visitors.
- Visual harassment: Displaying explicit materials, such as posters or images, in common areas or within a tenant’s view can create a hostile environment.
- Online or cyber harassment: In the digital age, harassment can extend to online platforms, such as through explicit messages, online stalking, or the distribution of compromising photos or videos.
How to deal with sexual harassment
Let’s say for example we are following San Francisco Landlord-Tenant Laws and you authorize a maintenance worker to enter a tenant’s residence. The worker harasses the tenant and one of their guests or a member of their family. You can be held responsible for the actions of that individual. What’s more, if one of your tenants engages in harassment against another one and you are informed of it, if you fail to take action on the alleged victim’s behalf, some courts have ruled you are equally liable, as you can be said to have created an atmosphere within which there are no repercussions for untoward behavior of this nature.
For this reason, if you are made aware of any form of sexual harassment on your property, you should take definitive steps to stop the harassment, up to and including firing the staffer or evicting the tenant. You should also exercise caution that none of your subsequent actions could be construed as retaliatory against the victim or the individual who reported the situation. This includes denying housing, increasing rent, withholding maintenance or other services, harassing, suing, or evicting.
In addition to fines, sexual harassment cases can open you up to civil liability suits, so you want to make sure you address any such claims right away. You should also request the complaint be made in writing, signed, and dated. Additionally, you should record in writing the actions you took to rectify the situation along with the dates the actions were taken.
Concluding thoughts
In conclusion, sexual harassment in rental properties is a pressing issue that affects tenants’ safety and well-being. Landlords play a pivotal role in ensuring secure living environments and must prioritize addressing this problem. Neglecting sexual harassment not only endangers tenants but also exposes landlords to legal and financial risks.
The Fair Housing Act classifies sexual harassment as a form of discrimination, making it crucial for landlords to understand and comply with its provisions. Whether it’s quid pro quo or hostile environment harassment, landlords have a legal duty to prevent and address such behavior promptly. They must take decisive actions, such as terminating employees or evicting tenants involved in harassment while documenting all steps taken to rectify the situation. By doing so, landlords contribute to the creation of safe, inclusive rental communities where everyone can live free from harassment and discrimination.
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