On Mon, 30 Aug 2004, localuser@localhost.dom wrote:
[ We are not born in the U.S. and have a neighbor
who has been trying to make our lives a living hell.
This has included his implying that our housing
association is in effect a "dictatorship" under his
control then by his having caused the association
to harass us about our use of the property even
before we actualy moved in, his sending e-mail
complaining that we should not park a car on the
side of our house even though it is within our
property's boundary, and his saying that he doesn't
like foreigners. ]
Is this some kind of discrimination? Will a lawyer
take this case? Thanks for helping!
Except for one reference to perhaps severe arbitrariness and one
statement to the effect that he "doesn't like foreigners" on the part
of just one neighbor, you do not actually say above that the only act
of which you actually complain specifically (that you were asked not
to park your car on your property near the side of your house) was
motivated by animus towards you because you are not U.S. nationals
compared with, e.g., whether (even if you were parking within your
property's boundary) you were violating some rule/regulation
prescribed by the homeowner association by whose rules you imply you
agreed to be bound by purchasing association owned or controlled
property.
Certainly, however, your use with respect to whatever may be other
words/acts of just a generalized/vague conclusory label to
characterize what ythis neighor has said/done ("harass") does not show
that/how he or anyone affiliated with him has behaved towards you in a
manner that would be discriminatory by reason of your nationality.
But assuming that your further elaboring the facts in these respects
would tend to show nationality-based animus in housing by a person
directly or in effect in control of a residential housing association,
note that many municipalities/counties and most states in the U.S.
have laws which make unlawful various forms of discriminatory behavior
in housing based on perceived (if also explicitly or in effect
stated/provable) racial or nationality grounds, and there also are
several federal laws which also address these issues.
In numerous (concededly: not all) municipalities/counties, there also
are governmentally-supported or not-for-profit "fair housing"
organizations which, if asked in a timely and factually coherent
fashion for assistance, will try to intercede and assist by a
combination of mediatory approaches and, in some instances, by
assisting with litigation.
If your trying to communicate directly with the neighbor to whom you
refer appears to be a probably non-productive approach in terms of
your resolving your differences (though, perhaps signficantly, you
don't say what if anything you've done to attempt this), a therefore
perhaps for you better threshhold question than whether "a lawyer
[will] take this case?" might (at least in the first instance) be your
verifying whether there is such an agency/organization near you and,
if so, whether they will offer advice/assistance as an organization
(including by referring you to an attorney in your area familiar with
these issues).
