Help! complaint of fair housing discrimination against disabled person

[swkk]

I am a landlord, renting my condo. I got a discrimination complaint from the Housing Equality Law Project in CA recently. The complaint is a preferential treatment based on disability (need for a service animal), "our housing investigator became aware of a preferential treatment whereby an able-bodied prospective applicant with a pet was offered an alternate date to view the rental while a disabled prospective applicant with a service animal who made the same request was not."

Here is what happened.

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I had an open house on a Saturday, but not on Sunday because I would be out of town. My rental ad has "no pet" policy, but I know that a service animal is not a pet.

Here is the timeline. A-D are people that emailed me.

A asked me if I could show the rental on Sunday
I told A that I would be out of town.
B sent me an email
I replied B with my address
B said he is disabled and has a service dog, and asked he can come on Sunday
C (C is B's friend) asked if he can come on Sunday
I replied C that I would be out of town, but could drop by my condo for for a quick show (this was because I suddenly realized my condo was close to the route of my trip).
D sent me an email
I replied D with my address, but did not say anything about Sunday
I replied B that I would be out of town
B asked if Monday or Tuesday was available
C said he didn't want to rush me on Sunday, and asked about Tuesday
I replied B that I wouldn't be available, but asked him to come on next Saturday during the open house
C emailed me again to ask about Tuesday
I replied C that Wednesday was available
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The differences between B and C are,
1) C got a short showing on Sunday, while B did not. But I did not provide A and D with the short showing either. Actually A was the first one who wanted to come on Sunday.
2) C got a weekday showing on Wednesday, while B got a weekend showing on Saturday. I replied B first because I would for sure have time on Saturday for an open house. Later I saw C's email and checked my schedule and found out Wednesday also works, so I replied C with Wednesday. But I did not receive any message from B since then, so I assumed Saturday worked for B, and did not ask B to come on Wednesday.

This is my case. Do you think there is any discrimination against disabled person with service dog?

Thanks so much!

[AFFA]

I wish to inform you that you can object to the complaint from the Housing Equality Law Project in CA based on disability discrimination. You can file a reply and can inform that based upon availability of your time you have provided an equal opportunity to show your premises to all the interested persons which included three able bodied and one disabled person with a service dog. Further, A who was able bodied was the first to request a viewing on Sunday. You may inform that you were out of town on Sunday and not available on Monday and Tuesday. You can also argue that the complaint is frivolous, therefore, it should be dismissed. Further, the facts clearly show that the treatment provided was same to the disabled person with a service dog as well as other able bodied persons.

AFF

[swkk]

what can landlord do to best protect my interests. Is it anyway in such case that the landlord need to sacrifice $$ to settle this case?

[swkk]

Originally Posted by AFFA I wish to inform you that you can object to the complaint from the Housing Equality Law Project in CA based on disability discrimination. You can file a reply and can inform that based upon availability of your time you have provided an equal opportunity to show your premises to all the interested persons which included three able bodied and one disabled person with a service dog. Further, A who was able bodied was the first to request a viewing on Sunday. You may inform that you were out of town on Sunday and not available on Monday and Tuesday. You can also argue that the complaint is frivolous, therefore, it should be dismissed. Further, the facts clearly show that the treatment provided was same to the disabled person with a service dog as well as other able bodied persons. AFF

Thanks for your reply!

I already requested a mediation to resolve this complaint. I am wondering what would be the key facts that can show I did not discriminate the disabled person? Thanks,

[swkk]

FYI, here is the complaint, filed by the HELP. I am in CA.

I. on <date>, our housing investigator discovered preferential treatment at a rental property located at <address>.
II. We believe our housing investigator discovered a preferential treatment based on disability (need for a service animal). This is violation of Government Code, Section 12955, Subdivision (a). Our belief is based on the following:
A. Our housing investigator became aware of a preferential treatment whereby an able-bodied prospective applicant without a pet was offered an alternate date to view the rental while a disabled prospective applicant with a service animal who made the same request was not. This practice discriminates against disabled applicants with a need for a service animal.
B. Housing Equality Law Project alleges that in gathering this information it diverted staff resources and found that the respondent's conduct constituted a frustration of our mission to prevent housing discrimination in the state.