Largest Settlement of State Fair Housing Claim Occurs in Arizona

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Fair Housing / Discrimination / Comments

A 2007 Fair Housing complaint filed by two Arizona tenants alleging that their apartment managers discriminated against them based on their race, nationality and religion, has resulted in the largest state Fair Housing claim to date.

In 2007, Soha Abdelrahman and her husband Hany Obrahim filed a lawsuit against their Tempe, Arizona apartment managers claiming discrimination based upon their Arabic race, Egyption nationality and Muslim religion.  The defendant in the lawsuit is Texas-based Hall Financial Group, Ltd., which manages rental properties in various states -- but no longer in Arizona.

The Arizona Attorney's General Office announced that Hall Financial Group agreed to pay a total of $227, 5000 to settle the lawsuit.  $197,500 of the settlement amount will go to the tenants and $30,000 will go to the Arizona AG's Office to enforce civil rights laws in Arizona.

The settlement did not include an admission of wrongdoing by Hall Financial Group.   However the lawsuit alleged that Hall discriminated against the tenants based on their race, religion and nationality, when the tenants applied to rent an apartment in 2006.  Allegations included claims that Hall's agents discouraged the tenants from aplying for housing, inspected their apartment and possessions during their move-in, and ignored requests for repairs to the apartment.  The lawsuit also claimed that once the tenants alleged discrimination the managers attempted to evict them.

You can read more about this settlement in the Arizona Republic.

If you would like to learn more about Fair Housing and what the protected classes are I have written about that issue in a prior blog post as well as discussing what actions by landlords are covered under Fair Housing law.