Attorney General Brown Files Lawsuit Against Landlord for Sexually Harrassing Tenants

If you are a tenant or a prospective tenant, it is unlawful discrimination for a landlord, property manager, or loan officer, to:

• Request or demand sex in exchange for rent;
• Offer a lower rent in exchange for sex;
• Make repeated unwelcome comments of a sexual nature;
• Evict a tenant, raise their rent, refuse to make repairs or take other retaliatory action for refusing sexual advances;
• Comment on how your body looks;
• Show you sexually explicit images or videos;
• Ask for sexual photos of you;
• Disqualify a potential tenant or take other retaliatory action for refusing sexual advances.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown has filed a lawsuit against an Eastern Shore landlord and his company, for violating these laws. The lawsuit alleges a pattern of gender-based housing discrimination involving sexual harassment and demands to exchange sex for rent.

The attorney general’s Civil Rights Division created factsheets, in both English and Spanish, to explain the protections granted under the law:

Gender Based Discrimination in Housing FactsheetGender Based Discrimination in Housing Factsheet (en español)