Housing discrimination on foreign income?

[babsloblaw 6]

Hello all,

The story is that my fiance and I are looking for an apartment right now in California, and we're relying mostly on our JP bank account to prove that we can pay for the rent, because neither of us will be employed when we move to the US.

Our bank statements are only provided in yen, so I sent them that, plus an excel file showing them all the amounts in us dollars. Now, the manager of the apartment is saying that we need to convert a years' worth of rent to US dollars. With the yen being high right now, we'll lose a couple of hundred dollars if we did something like that in one swoop. (We've set it up so that we have access to the account abroad, convert cash when needed, etc.etc.)

My question is, are they actually legally allowed to refuse our application on the grounds that our bank statements are in yen, despite the fact that when converted, it's more than enough to cover for several years of rent? Would it constitute housing discrimination on their part to do something like that? I kind of want to know my rights as a renter before I proceed.

[TBoneTX 45,288]

The manager has almost certainly never faced this before and is bewildered. They can probably do whatever they want to ensure your solvency; there may be corporate policies. However, find a real estate attorney who'll give you a free or cheap initial consultation. This will be easier than trying to research state laws and local ordinances on your own.

[Boiler 45,511]

Yes

[babsloblaw 6]

The manager has almost certainly never faced this before and is bewildered. They can probably do whatever they want to ensure your solvency; there may be corporate policies. However, find a real estate attorney who'll give you a free or cheap initial consultation. This will be easier than trying to research state laws and local ordinances on your own.

Thanks! There's a group called the Asian Law Alliance that seems like they can answers questions precisely like these. I'm calling them late tonight, but I wanted to check if anyone in VJ ran into the same problems before too.