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    Can a New York Landlord Refuse to Rent to Meat Eaters?

    Law 3 Mins Read

    First appeared in NewsBreak

    By Aron Solomon

    A recent Sunday New York Times had a puzzle more interesting than a crossword:

    Can a landlord (here, a landlord in Brooklyn who also lives in a unit in the building he rents) rent only to prospective tenants who agree not to cook meat or fish?

    A short personal anecdote here:

    I totally get that for a lot of people, cooking any kind of animal flesh indoors at home is kind of gross. I’m in this group. I get that it’s intensified, especially in old buildings, where odors can travel and linger.

    So I’m sympathetic and empathetic with all involved here. I get how a vegan landlord isn’t demanding that people in the building should only be vegans but should be courteous to everyone and not cook animal flesh. An important note is that the landlord in issue here never requested that tenants be vegans or don’t bring fish or meat into their home – just that they don’t cook it.

    And, as many of you will surely agree, I get that people should be free to rent an apartment in Brooklyn or L.A. or Salt Lake City and be able to make a horsemeat burger in their George Foreman Grill if they want to.

    So what does the law say here?

    First, landlord-tenant laws can vary, and specific regulations can differ between New York City and New York State. In general, landlords have the authority to establish rules and regulations for their properties as long as they comply with applicable laws. It is possible that a landlord could implement restrictions on cooking practices, but it would likely depend on various factors, including the terms of the lease agreement, local housing regulations, and any relevant health or safety considerations.

    As the Times piece mentioned, in New York, the city’s Human Rights Law lists 14 characteristics that landlords are not allowed to consider in deciding whether to rent an apartment to someone, but fondness for meat is not one of them. However, if a tenant can prove that they have a medical condition that requires some sort of “reasonable accommodation” on the landlord’s part, they might be able to fight the meat ban. Seems to me that the easiest thing to do here is not rent in a building where the landlord sets similar rules.

    As New York lawyer, William H. Cooper, points out, whether the landlord’s actions here were legal, is a definite maybe:

    “Honestly, this case depends upon how a judge would see the facts. These kinds of cases are very situation-dependent, with the individual facts of the case driving the application of the law.”

    Ultimately, to obtain accurate and current information about the legality of a restriction such as whether a landlord in New York City or New York State can rent only to tenants restriction in or wherever you live, you should consult the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), or a similar local agency in your city.

    About Aron Solomon

    A Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer, Aron Solomon, JD, is the chief legal analyst for Esquire Digital. He has taught entrepreneurship at McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania and was elected to Fastcase 50, recognizing the top 50 legal innovators in the world. Aron has been featured in Forbes, CBS News, Crunchbase, Variety, CNBC, USA Today, ESPN, TechCrunch, The Hill, BuzzFeed, Fortune, Venture Beat, The Independent, Fortune China, Yahoo!, ABA Journal, Law.com, The Boston Globe, NewsBreak, and many other leading publications.

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