Tenant on Tenant Harassment

What is unlawful tenant-on-tenant harassment in housing?

Harassment can include unwanted words or behavior directed at someone because of a protected characteristic. Protected characteristics are personal traits, beliefs, or things about a person (or group of people) that are protected by law from discrimination or harassment. Some examples of protected characteristics include race, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, religion, or immigration status. Often harassment can be threatening, intimidating, or demeaning to the person or people experiencing it. It doesn’t matter if the person doing the harassment meant to make a joke and didn’t intend for the comments to rise to the level of harassment. Tenant-ontenant harassment can become unlawful when it involves a “quid pro quo” or creates a “hostile environment.” 

Some examples of unlawful harassment between tenants include:

• A tenant repeatedly refers to another tenant with unwelcome racial slurs.

• A tenant paints a Nazi swastika on the door of another tenant whom they believe to be Jewish.

• The owner of a condominium with a homeowner’s association (HOA) repeatedly makes derogatory remarks about another resident who is disabled.

Does a landlord have to do something if a tenant tells them they are being harassed by another tenant?

Housing providers must act quickly to correct and end harassment by another tenant when they knew or should have known about it, and where they have the power to correct it.1 The power to correct and end harassment by a tenant can be found in many leases and other housing contracts in the form of anti-harassment policies or rules. Also, in California, every residential lease contains an “implied covenant of quiet enjoyment.” This means that a housing provider must take action to stop tenant-on-tenant harassment that substantially interferes with the harassed person’s use and enjoyment of their home.