Landlords and brokers should pay close attention to Long Island Housing Servs. Inc. v. NPS Holiday Square LLC in the Eastern District of New York.
This case addressed whether minimum income requirements for rentals are discriminatory.
What do you think?
Should a landlord be able to screen tenants based on their income?
The landlords in this case utilize "a two-to-one income requirement, which generally requires applicants without housing vouchers to have an income double the monthly rent." If they have vouchers, the vouchers are credited "as one month's rent and [the] applicants [] have [to have] an income equal to between 80 percent and 100 percent of one month's rent."
To be discriminatory, this policy would have to have "'a significantly adverse or disproportionate impact' on housing voucher users."
Currently the plaintiffs and defendants are battling over experts, but this case is going to teach landlords, brokers, property managers, and the like how to frame their policies moving forward.
So, keep a close eye on this one.
