In another settlement, an Orange City, Florida landlord has agreed to pay $415,000 in monetary damages and civil penalties to settle a Fair Housing Act lawsuit alleging that they discriminated against African Americans and families with children.

Under the terms of the settlement, the landlord must retain an independent manager to manage the property.

The case began when an African American woman visited the rental property with her grandson and inquired about the availability of apartments. The landlord told her that there were no vacancies, and later refused to accept an application from her.

The application contained the notation “ADULTS ONLY” in the space designated for the number of children.

Later the same day, this applicant’s friend called the complex to ask about availability, and a leasing agent informed her that apartments were available.

A local television station subsequently conducted a series of “fair housing tests” “ simulated transactions to compare responses given by housing providers to different types of apartment-seekers to determine whether illegal discrimination is occurring “ and found that the defendants were providing more information and better treatment to white persons than to African American persons.

Prior to settlement, the DOJ was prepared to show evidence that this landlord had, among other things, told white applicants that a selling point of the apartment complex is that it does not have any black residents; denied the availability of apartments to African American persons while at the same time telling white persons about available apartments; refused to show apartments to African American persons while at the same time showing apartments to white persons; discouraged African American persons from applying for an apartment while encouraging white persons to apply; refused to negotiate with African American prospective tenants for rental; threatened to evict one or more tenants who were known or believed to have African American friends and associates.