Feds Charge Burlington Landlord With Housing Discrimination

Federal housing regulators have charged the landlord of a Peninsula apartment building with discriminating against a family with kids.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development accused Melinda Teruel, the owner of an undisclosed apartment complex in Burlingame, of violating fair housing laws, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The case will go before an administrative law judge unless a party pursues it in federal district court.

In charging documents filed late last month, HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge accused Teruel of pressuring a family who was expecting their second child to move out of their one-bedroom apartment and into a larger and more expensive unit.

The landlord said she was afraid that children would damage the apartment in the complex, according to the charging documents.

The owner allegedly told the tenants over and over that they could not stay in the unit because the unit “is not for a family of your size,” and that “families are known to cause more wear and tear,” documents show, according to the newspaper.

Teruel also allegedly warned the tenants that families had been evicted from a one-bedroom apartment before. Attempts by the Chronicle to reach Teruel were unsuccessful.

One of the unidentified tenants was seven months pregnant when the family moved into the building in September 2018, officials said.

When the landlord found out, investigators said, she offered the family a larger apartment, but the family declined because they could not afford it.

The tenants were paying $1,800 for their one-bedroom apartment at the time, and a two-bedroom unit cost $3,000, the investigation found.

Teruel pressured and harassed the family until the tenants decided to move out in June 2020, telling the landlord in an email that “the constant harassment from you regarding my children has been unbearable,” attorneys for HUD’s regional office told the Chronicle.

The landlord denied the allegations and withheld the family’s security deposit, accusing the tenants of causing significant damage to the unit although Teruel was unable to provide the government with proof of damage, officials said.

The landlord also accused family members of lying about the pregnancy when they moved in.

Sensing that an eviction might be imminent, the family moved to Sacramento after failing to find an affordable home in the Bay Area, the charging documents say. As a result of the discrimination, the family “suffered actual damages, including a lost housing opportunity, emotional distress, inconvenience and out-of-pocket costs,” officials said.

Federal officials said they are committed to enforcing the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination against families with children under 18, people who are pregnant and those in the process of obtaining legal custody.

“The Fair Housing Act protects families from discrimination because of the presence of children or because they are expecting a child,” said Damon Smith, the department’s general counsel, in a news release. He said the discrimination charges “should put landlords on notice that HUD takes those protections seriously.”

— Dana Bartholomew