Discrimination claims - baseless? or should I be losing sleep?

[Michael Kline]

Hello all,

I'd appreciate some input. Tonight a tenant applicant accused me of discrimination. There was a miscommunication - I thought he was not interested in the apartment (because when I showed it to him several days ago, his wife kept saying that they needed more bedrooms than it had, and that they would think about it). Anyhow, I mentioned off hand that if they decided they were interested that he could call me, and we could meet up on Wednesday night.

Well I never heard form him until tonight, when he called and said he was waiting for me to drop off the application. We agreed to meet at the unit. Well, unfortunately that was the same time that I was scheduled to meet someone else to accept an application.

The gentleman dropped off the application (while I was talking to the other applicant), but returned 15 minutes later and asked for it back. He tore it up, told me that he has lots of options of places to live and that there are laws against my discrimination.

Clearly he was upset that I was accepting an application from someone else when he arrived (and felt that I didn't show up for our original time). But I believe that he lost his rights to any discrimination claims because he withdrew his application. Of course, even if he hadn't I think it would be a baseless claim - but it's still giving me a great deal of anxiety.

I feel like I have gone to great lengths to standardize my process and make sure that I am never discriminating. I feel very badly, not because I did anything wrong but because I can see how he would feel as if he was wronged.

Anyhow, thoughts from the BP community would be much appreciated!