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AITA

Vegetarian Landlord Threatens To Evict Tenant For Bringing Meat Into The House

Renting can be difficult if you have a landlord who has extreme rules. In the case of one tenant, her vegetarian landlord has a strict policy against bringing meat into the house that is “stated in the lease agreement.”

The vegetarian landlord went on Reddit to explain how they found the tenant bringing meat into the house and is now threatening to evict the tenant during a pandemic. 

“I rent out a studio in the basement of my house. Is it very explicitly stated in the lease agreement that tenants are not allowed to bring any non-vegetarian foods onto the premises,” writes the OP. 

“About a week ago, I saw what was clearly a meat package inside of a grocery bag that she was unloading from her car. When I confronted her and pointed out the lease agreement, she gave me an extremely bewildered look. She claimed ignorance, which I told her was no excuse whatsoever since she willingly signed the agreement.” 

The OP pulled the agreement out on their phone and showed the tenant the clause. Then they told her to throw away the package immediately as well as any other non-vegetarian foods. The OP said that after three days, they would conduct an inspection. The tenant then screamed at the OP and told them to “go to hell.” 

“When I conducted the inspection, I very predictably found several meat packages and a carton of chicken broth inside of the refrigerator. I documented what I saw and gave her an official 15-day notice to quit, after which I will begin the eviction process if she does not comply. When I handed it to her, she went hysterical and started crying. She’s claiming that I’m violating her ‘human rights’ and that she’ll starve to death.” 

Is the OP taking this too far? Or was their tenant disrespectful? Redditors chimed in. Also, is this even legal? 

“YTA for trying to police what people eat. It clearly doesn’t actually matter to living in the apartment, because otherwise you would have noticed before. Also YTA for threatening to evict someone over that during a coronavirus pandemic. Whether it’s legal or not to have that clause, IANAL so ask a real lawyer,” said HA2HA2. 

“Is this real life? YTA just because it was already an asshole move to dictate dietary restrictions into a lease agreement,” said princezz_zelda. 

“Most people don’t read the details and wouldn’t assume in a million years it would be in there. Something this glaring I would think would also be highlighted in the listing. If you pointed it out and she explicitly agreed to it and then violated her promise, I would say NTA. But if you just put it in there when 90% of people wouldn’t read it and then are suddenly threatening to kick her out, YTA,” noted TobySomething.

A lawyer chimed in and explained that non-standard terms may be included if the space is small and shared. 

“I am a lawyer and I’m pretty sure you can add some very non-standard terms if the space is a small number of units and you also share the space. The stereotypical version is a little old lady wanting to let out a room and explicitly saying she’ll only lease to women (which is technically discriminatory against men) and that men can’t be there past 10:00 p.m. or something like that. U.S. law is pretty protective of what you can do in your own private space. Like basically you can be an asshole / racist / sexist in your own house,” explained CordeliaChase99. 

“YTA and you know you are. Yes. You put it into the lease agreement (which, WTF, since when can a lease agreement dictate what foods a person can consume? What’s next, no strong smelling foods? No ethnic foods?!) YTA here though because you could have handled this situation better at several moments: 1) when posting the unit for rent saying something like “prefer vegetarian diet tenants, I’m morally opposed to consuming animals.” (Though I believe that could be discriminatory. But that’s also basically why it’s in your lease so…you really may need a different lawyer.) 2) when you saw the meat, say “OMG, this is awkward but…the lease says no meats… I’d appreciate if you could not do this again.” 3) mind your own business,” Carrie_Oakie said. 

Two vegetarians provided illuminating takes on the situation and the OP’s behavior: 

“As an ethical vegetarian, 100% YTA. Food is so complex, OP. As someone who was in eating disorder treatment, there were a lot of clients who weren’t able to maintain vegetarianism / veganism without relapsing in their disorder, because a restrictive diet of any kind triggered their mental illness. Others had something called Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), and relied on broths to help them eat and remain nourished. Other folks have food allergies and other medical conditions that greatly restrict their access to certain types of foods and meals that they can prepare. Many foods can have cultural significance, too, even religious/spiritual significance.”

“Now add a pandemic into the mix, when folks are already fearful and clinging to comfort foods to emotionally regulate when access to food is already more challenging… and you’ve got a recipe (pun not intended) for disaster by imposing a restrictive diet onto others who may be struggling. OP, I deeply understand your care for animal welfare, but you have to consider human welfare, too. Which includes farm workers who are regularly exposed to pesticides, many of the undocumented folks who can’t access health care during a pandemic who are also picking YOUR foods. The reality is, there is no perfect way of eating that doesn’t do harm to other living beings — that means we, as individuals, must make the very personal decision to do what we can. And for some folks, vegetarianism is just not on the table, and it’s not up to you to decide who that does and does not apply to.”

“Your lack of empathy for this person during a global crisis is very alarming. And your comparing eating meat to slavery is disturbing and indicates a lack of thoughtful engagement with anti-racism work. The vile legacy of slavery, and the remnants of it that still exist today, should NOT be used so flippantly. If you don’t understand why, it’s time to educate yourself,” said factorykid. 

“Holy shit, YTA. And for the record, I’m an adamant vegetarian. Hell, I’m trying to go vegan, though admittedly I’m struggling. First, it’s EXTREMELY telling that you said ‘this information was in the lease’ not ‘I told her before signing that it was a vegetarian apartment.’ That’s a really clever way to disguise saying, ‘I sold it as a normal apartment and expected the lease to tell her.’ This is a niche restriction, the burden was on you to clearly articulate this to prospective tenants. I’m not going to assume you did this on purpose, but even so it’s negligence. Second, you’re going straight to searching her apartment and eviction. Why? She’s not going to permanently damage your property, you probably would never know. On the other hand, She’s going to be out a ton of money, a place to live, and lost productivity from getting kicked around. You’re letting ideology motivate you to actually cause harm to another person. That’s wrong,” observed LennyDaGoblin. 

What do you think? Is the OP wildly out of line?

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Patricia Grisafi

Patricia Grisafi, PhD, is a freelance writer and educator. Her work has appeared in Salon, Vice, Bitch, Bustle, Broadly, The Establishment, and elsewhere. She is passionate about pit bull rescue, cursed objects, and designer sunglasses.