HUD charges Georgia landlords with housing discrimination

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced it is charging PadSplit, Inc., a property management company, Kevin Lee Forrestal and Lydia Forrestal, the property owners, in Decatur, Georgia, with discrimination against a tenant because of her disability. HUD’s Charge of Discrimination alleges that respondents failed to grant a reasonable accommodation when a hearing-impaired complainant requested to have a service animal to assist with her disability.

HUD’s Charge of Discrimination alleges that the property’s management company and its employees, and the condominium unit’s owners, prohibited a hearing-impaired resident from using a service animal in their unit, and refused to install a visual doorbell and smoke detector, preventing her full use of her unit. Ultimately, their actions resulted in the resident’s decision to move out of the unit.