Fresh Wallaby Juice

I certainly didn’t expect kindly Mrs. Snook to hang up on me when I called to ask a few questions about that apartment before I gave her my application.

Looks like they really don’t want uppity tenants who ask questions first.

An open letter to Snook Properties of Ann Arbor, Michigan,

or,

How I learned to stop asking questions before signing a lease.

Wednesday, April 27th: Found a listing (on the University of Michigan Off-Campus Housing site) for an apartment leased by Snook Properties, at 428 S. Division St. Good location. Sounds like a good apartment. Call them up — sure, I can see it the next day. (Many leases require at least 24 hours’ notice for a landlord to enter to show an apartment. Not SP’s, apparently.)

Thursday, April 28th: Tour that apartment, and another a few blocks away. Looks kind of run-down, frankly, and it’s on the small side for “1 bedroom” status. The ad said “on site” laundry; no, turns out that the SP laundry center is in a different house around the corner. The location is about the only thing that makes it acceptable, but… it’s a *really* good location, and I’m only going to be living there for four months. SP has no objection to my finding a subtenant to take the place over come January. I take home a generic-looking application.

Friday, April 29th: I fill out the application. But wait — there’s a question on here about “legal status” and they want to know my age; is it legal for them to ask that? I don’t know, not a lawyer. Call up the Snooks and ask, since I forgot to yesterday, when the apartment could be available — August 27th? Perfect! And oh, could they tell me why they want to know whether I’m married or not? Oh, it’s just so they know how many people will be living there. Sensible. But there’s a separate question for that on the application, so… And what’s this about age? “You know, I don’t think we want to do business with you,” says Mrs. Snook. *click*

I stare at the phone, bemused. Call her back… finally get through (I suspect she’d left the phone off the hook, busy signal for 10 minutes.) “Hi, I called a few minutes ago, I think we got cut–” “Yes, I hung up on you.” *click*

Now, I didn’t really have any objection in the first place to reporting my marital status or my age. I’m reasonably sure that no Ann Arbor landlord with any experience (and a desire to keep their ads listed with the U of M. housing office, or at least stay out of lawsuits) is going to actually discriminate on the basis of either of those things. I was just mildly curious about why they wanted to know this information which, from what I understood, isn’t legal for them to consider in making a decision.

So, I called the University housing office. “Is this legal?” I asked. “It’s legal for them to ask, but not to use the information in deciding.” (Which makes no sense at all, incidentally, but at least it’s an answer.) “Is it actually illegal or just rude for them to hang up on me when I ask about it?” “Oh, they hung up on you? Uh… I’ll ask around and get back to you.”

Finally spoke to someone in the housing office who agreed that yeah, Mrs. Snook’s answer did raise some flags. She called Mrs. Snook, who apparently told her that she just didn’t think that things had gotten off to a very good start with me. (Funny, I don’t think things got off to a very good start with *them*.) The housing-office person did suggest that I call the Fair Housing Office, which’ll have to wait until Monday at this point.

So, Snook Properties of Ann Arbor, Michigan may or may not use the information they request when they shouldn’t. I’m sure that they don’t actually mean to discriminate in any illegal way. I’m sure they’re very nice people, and make excellent landlords. But I’m very sure that they only like tenants who don’t ask questions before signing the paperwork.

Tags: apartments, discrimination, housing