apartment lease

I just signed a lease for an apartment in Park Slope. I know the Slope is liberal and we don't like that fucking Bush and his fucking war. But I can separate the asshole in Washington from supporting the troops. The landlord made me sign saying I wasn't in the military and wouldn't join the military. Now I need an apartment, Ican't look for another now, so I signed. This landlord won't rent an apartment to someone in the military for fear of loosing rent if they end up in Iraq. Am I the only one bothered by this?

are you in the military?

That is really strange. This is also discrimination. You can report your landlord but i'm sure he will know it was you who reported him and the relationship may suffer a bit.
Was there a place on the lease to claim that you are not a communist or a terrorist?

Bothered by it, yes. This similar thing happened to me as well, and from what I understand, the only way that one could get out of the lease with such a clause was to have a formal letter of assignment from whatever agency within government to break the lease. So, there is a way out if you should get sent to serve your country or be deployed somewhere else. The landlord is an ass. A real big ass.

I believe the landlord is making sure that if you renege on the rent that you can be evicted. A process server will always ask the landlord and/or a witness if the evictee is in the military. If that person is then the summons/eviction notice, etc is null and void because he/she is serving the country. I am not sure what he did is legal or binding.

Idlewild wrote: I believe the landlord is making sure that if you renege on the rent that you can be evicted. A process server will always ask the landlord and/or a witness if the evictee is in the military. If that person is then the summons/eviction notice, etc is null and void because he/she is serving the country. I am not sure what he did is legal or binding.

You are right about the legalities, and it is not illegal or discrimination. The owner knows the rules of the court system, and he is merely protecting himself.

I found it upsetting that some of the other comments were very personal attacks on the owner and not the situation. People should stop that kind of steriotyping.
GIGI, this means YOU!!!

Come to think of it, my lease had a whole page concerning this military topic.

mind me asking who your landlord is? initials only is fine. I've heard that my landlord owns "half of park slope"

Subject: apatrment lease

Captain Salty wrote: are you in the military?

No, and I wouldn't join the military. But that's not my point.

sarajean8 wrote: Come to think of it, my lease had a whole page concerning this military topic.

mind me asking who your landlord is? initials only is fine. I've heard that my landlord owns "half of park slope"

Last name starts with a B, owns several buildings in the slope.

The landlord might be afraid that if you are in the military and sent to Iraq that she or he will be stuck with your lease, unable to rent to others, and unable to collect rent money from you. Just a guess.

3rd gen. slopee wrote: [quote=Idlewild]I believe the landlord is making sure that if you renege on the rent that you can be evicted. A process server will always ask the landlord and/or a witness if the evictee is in the military. If that person is then the summons/eviction notice, etc is null and void because he/she is serving the country. I am not sure what he did is legal or binding.

You are right about the legalities, and it is not illegal or discrimination. The owner knows the rules of the court system, and he is merely protecting himself.

I found it upsetting that some of the other comments were very personal attacks on the owner and not the situation. People should stop that kind of steriotyping.
GIGI, this means YOU!!!

As I was merely skimming this thread I missed the "personal attacks" until I read 3rd gen. slopee's reply "GIGI, this means YOU!!!" which sounds the most menacing to me, an objective outsider.

You are not legally allowed to evict someone who is a member of the armed forces who is deployed to a war zone. I'm assuming the landlord probably had this happen to them and that is why they are asking....

That being said, I'm not sure if any document like that (the landlords) would actually hold up in court or offer the landlord any protection or grant them any ability to actually evict.

It's probably just a way for the landlord to discriminate against service members in some quasi-legal way by denying anyone who answers yes an apartment.

I would also tend to believe that the landlord is not against people in the military but just protecting there own financial interests.

sloper111, please give me a call when you get this message. 347-834-3738

My own hunch is that making you sign such a paper probably IS illegal, but I'm not an attorney and don't know for sure. Take all the armchair lawyering going on in this thread with a BIG grain of salt and talk to a housing attorney. A good place to start looking would be Tenant.net.

A long, long time ago I had to take a real estate law class in order to get my broker's license (long story, but no, I was not a broker). Anyway, as I recall (and unless the law has changed or there's a special military provision I'm unaware of), there's nothing illegal about discriminating against someone on the basis of his/her job, including a military job. As a case in point, lawyers are among the most discriminated against tenants in the city. Not illegal.

Anonymous wrote: sloper111, please give me a call when you get this message. 347-834-3738

who are you? I don't want my landlord knowing who I am. I need this apartment .