My experience with this landlord suggests that he is afraid of being called out for violating landlord-tenant law or is guilty of more vile discriminatory practices.

I am a lawyer of Indian descent, and I work for a large firm in Boston. I applied to live here and left my check with a realtor, who based on my income and background assured that I would be approved for the apartment. Mentally, I was already moving into the place. However, the next day I was told that the building does not take "lawyers".

This was very embarassing, and completely unacceptable. There are two ways to interpret the landlord's decision. One is that he has engaged in shady practices in the past, and thus will no longer rent to lawyers because they are the most likely people to call him out on breaking landlord-tenant law. The other is that some other factor led him to reject my application, and he was using the lawyer thing as an excuse.

Either way, this experience should serve as a major warning to potential residents. The landlord is either afraid of being called out for violating the law or he engages in discrimination of other, much worse, sorts.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/19/2008
I spent a little time researching this. Unfortunately, landlords seem within their rights in discriminating against people based on occupation. There may be more going on, but I am going to move on with my life instead of dwelling on this place. For basic information on tenant's rights in MA, see http://www.masslegalhelp.org/housing/legal-tactics1. This is a great source of info on what you can do to deal with landlords violating the law. Also, consider calling the AG's consumer protection hotline. They are very helpful with a variety of claims, including inappropriate behavior by landlords. The number is 617-727-8400. Finally, consider contacting the Volunteer Lawyers Project. They provide free, very good advice. See their website at http://www.vlpnet.org/for_clients. Best of luck.
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/20/2008
Thank you very much!
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/08/2008
I suspect he was concerned acout conducting his affairs normally with someone who knows the law. After I complained about snow removal, he threatened me over the phone with taking me to court, and tried to get me to leave. He also locked me out of the gym and withheld packages (which I called him on when I had a tracked package not be reported to me for 2 days). He couldn't do these things with a lawyer, and I did not have the time to go through the proper legal channels.

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