Q: Can a landlord refuse emergency or temporary housing assistance payments? Can a landlord deny those tenants because the housing program requires a vacant unit for inspection, and this costs the landlord money? Can a landlord refuse reasonable rent suggested by a housing authority?
A: Housing providers and real estate professionals must comply with Fair Housing Laws. In Massachusetts, it is an unlawful violation of Fair Housing Laws to screen tenants, or deny tenants, based on their source of income. This includes a prohibition on denying payments from emergency or temporary sources such as RAFT or voucher programs such as MRVP.
Many rental assistance programs require inspections of the property prior to signing of the lease agreement. In some instances, these programs require the units to be vacant or require the housing provider to do some repairs. While this may result in the housing provider incurring additional costs, a tenant cannot be denied because of a requirement of the program. In DiLiddo v. Oxford St. Realty, 450 Mass. 66 (2007), the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a landlord’s refusal to rent to a tenant who was a participant in the Alternative Housing Voucher Program (AHVP) based on objections to the termination provisions of the standard AHVP lease violated Massachusetts Fair Housing Laws (G.L c. 151B, s. 4(10)). The Court noted that the 1990 legislative amendment to the statute made it unlawful to discriminate against a person either because of any requirement of a subsidy program or because the person was a participant of a subsidy program. Therefore, an objection that adhering to program requirements will cost time and money, is not an adequate defense to violating Fair Housing laws.
However, this does not mean that if a landlord receives an application from a tenant that cannot pay the listed rental price, or the Housing Authority offers a lower “reasonable rent” that the landlord must accept a lower rental amount….