Landlord Sued in Pennsylvania for Sexual Harassment and Retaliation Against Tenant

An Indian-origin landlord, Venkatachalam Mani, has been sued in Pennsylvania for sexually harassing a female tenant and then retaliating against her when she refused her advances. The incident took place in 2022 when the complainant and her four minor children moved into Mani's property with a one-year lease.

The lawsuit detailed how the harassment began from day one when the complainant arrived and Mani did not have a shirt or shoes on, he was only wearing his khaki pants. The complainant's 11-year-old boy was with her when the mother went to do paperwork. Mani asked the boy to wait upstairs while he and his tenant went to the basement for the paperwork. Mani showed her some papers and then suddenly showed her pictures of a naked man and woman in a sexual act. The complainant told him that she was not comfortable with that. Mani said that the photo had something to do with the work and then told her that "nipple sucking" prevented breast cancer.

The complainant described that Mani was standing so close to her that their knees touched as he leaned over her in the chair. Mani then grabbed the complainant's breasts and tried to kiss her. The complainant rushed outside the room and came upstairs and refused to do the paperwork.

The lawsuit said that after this, Mani began to show up at the property that he gave on rent and told the complainant that she should find a bigger place and that she should get renters' insurance as the place may go up in flames. He tried to give her kids candies and when the tenant objected, Mani told the kids that she was a "bad mom". After that, Mani failed to respond to the tenant's repeated requests for maintenance, including repairing a broken furnace in the middle of winter that eventually caught fire.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for the tenant and her children and a court order barring future discrimination.

“The landlord failed to fix a tenant’s furnace despite freezing temperatures because the female tenant refused his sexual advances, forcing her family to move out with no other place to live,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This conduct is illegal. The Justice Department will uphold the rights of female tenants to housing without the threat of sexual harassment by a landlord.”

“Attempts to exploit tenants for sexual favors, sexual assault, and retaliation by landlords will never be tolerated in the Middle District of Pennsylvania,” said US Attorney Brian D Miller for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.