New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced Tuesday that his office has found probable cause that a Bergen County real estate agency failed to show and rent an apartment because the prospective tenant was not Korean and didn’t speak the language.
KayMax Realty Inc., the agency that handled the rental unit in Palisades Park, is named in a legal complaint, along with the couple who owns the dwelling. The couple’s names are redacted from the complaint released Tuesday.
The couple and KayMax Realty are accused of violating New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination in 2018 by refusing to rent a four-bedroom apartment to Anna Ceylan, who was moving to New Jersey from New York City.
Ceylan said she called KayMax agent Gina Seo, who told her she was busy and would call her back but never did.
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According to Ceylan, she called another agent who showed her the apartment. The agent told Ceylan the KayMax agent – the one listed in the Zillow.com ad as the contact — had confided that the owners would not rent to a person who was not Korean.
Seo on Tuesday told NJ Advance Media she never had that conversation with anyone.
“I’m not stupid. I’ve been in the business 20 years and I have never said that,” she said.
Grewal, however, said an analysis by the state’s civil rights division showed the couple told KayMax of their desire to avoid renting to any person who did not speak Korean, and the agency went along with their wishes, according to Grewal.
“New Jersey law clearly prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin in rental housing,” said Attorney General Grewal. “There is simply no excuse for real-estate professionals to engage in or cooperate with such conduct – tacitly or otherwise.”
In answering the complaint, broker Keun Joo said the previous tenants were not Korean and did not speak the language, which led to a problem involving law enforcement. The owners felt the issue could have been avoided if the tenants spoke Korean, the complaint states.
In their answer to the complaint, the couple did not admit or deny the allegations.
“We are sorry for all that happened and also very sorry to what caused … Anna Ceylan … such humiliation, pain and suffering,” the couple wrote in their answer.
Ceylan sought help from the Fair Housing Council of Northern New Jersey. Four days after making her complaint, the council found the unit was no longer for rent.
The council then referred the matter to the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, a division within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD then referred it to the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights in keeping with a cooperative work sharing agreement between HUD and the Division under HUD’s Fair Housing Assistance Program.
Grewal said a finding of probable cause means the state has concluded its preliminary investigation and determined there is sufficient evidence to support a claim the state’s law against discrimination has been violated.
According to the civil rights division, a finding of probably cause will result in a hearing where both parties try to work out the issue. If the division can work out an agreement with complainant and respondent, then the matter will be closed. If not, the case may be prosecuted in Bergen County Superior Court.
The penalty for a first-time offense is $10,000, according to the division.
Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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