Wednesday, September 25, 2013
COLUMBUS (AP) — The case of a landlady accused of fair-housing violations because she refused to rent apartments to undercover anti-discrimination testers could get a final decision from Ohio’s civil rights agency Thursday.
Helen Grybosky told undercover testers who said they had disability dogs that pets weren’t allowed or required an extra deposit at an apartment in Conneaut in northeast Ohio, a 2009 complaint by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission claims.
Grybosky, 81, told another tester alleging to be a single mother with a child that she could only rent a downstairs unit at a higher cost, a second complaint claims. Both alleged violations of state and federal law.
The complaints were based on allegations filed with the commission in 2008 by Painesville, Ohio-based Fair Housing Resource Center, an anti-discrimination group that first investigated Grybosky.
An administrative judge ruled against Grybosky last year and the commission upheld the judge’s ruling this summer.
At issue Thursday are damages and attorneys’ fees facing Grybosky.