A Douglas Elliman dealer was fired after two potential renters say an condominium exhibiting in Flushing, Queens changed into a discriminatory incident.
Lisa Renee Olaso and her fiancé filed a lawsuit towards the brokerage, certainly one of its brokers and a property proprietor after the incident, which occurred in June, WABC reported. Upon studying of the lawsuit filed this week, Elliman fired the dealer.
Olaso alleged she was scheduled to satisfy with the dealer to see a rental condominium on twenty sixth Avenue as a part of her relocation plans from Delaware for a job alternative. The dealer, who Olaso says hadn’t met the couple in particular person earlier than the exhibiting, noticed them from a distance and fired off a textual content message to the property proprietor, which unintentionally included Olaso.
“As we have been getting out of the automobile, I obtained the textual content message that stated, ‘Ugh. They’re Black,’” Olaso informed the outlet.
She later confronted the dealer over the message, who claimed it was a reference to Black tenants within the neighborhood who had beforehand prompted bother, in response to Olaso.
WABC, which first reported the lawsuit, recognized the dealer by the final title Tzelios. Helen Tzelios is a dealer whose on-line profiles describe her as a Bayside, Queens-based dealer who started her profession at Elliman in 2000 as a licensed gross sales affiliate.
“Douglas Elliman has a zero-tolerance coverage for discrimination of any sort, and the agent is now not with the corporate,” the brokerage stated in an announcement.
Elliman was beforehand the goal of a lawsuit alleging discrimination underneath the Honest Housing Act, which was.
Shaniqua Newkirk, who’s Black, sued Elliman and various its high brokers — together with Noble Black, Frances Katzen, Ann Cutbill Lenane and Lauren Muss — in 2023, alleging the luxurious brokers both didn’t assist her discover housing together with her Part 8 voucher or didn’t reply to her emailed requests to help her.
Within the lawsuit, Newkirk claimed she began reaching out to brokers on an inventory of town’s high brokers in June 2021 to search out somebody to help her to find a brand new condominium together with her voucher. As a substitute, Newkirk alleges her requests have been brushed off or went unanswered.
A spokesperson for Elliman pushed again towards the claims, calling them “predatory and baseless.” The spokesperson additional argued the agency had a “zero tolerance coverage” for discrimination and maintained a “rigorous” coaching program for brokers round truthful housing insurance policies.
A federal decide dismissed the lawsuit towards the agency and its New York Metropolis brokers in March 2025. In an announcement on the time, Elliman stated, “We delight ourselves on our agent coaching applications, which embody rigorous schooling on truthful housing legal guidelines.”
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