Man Posted Screenshots Of How He Was Turned Down By A Landlord For Being A 'Foreigner'

One landlord chat turned into a blunt reminder that discrimination in housing still shows up in everyday life. A man looking for a room shared screenshots of the exchange, and the conversation changed fast once the landlord asked where he was from.

The tenant, Abbas Ali, was simply trying to arrange a viewing, but the questions quickly shifted from timing to ethnicity. What followed was a familiar kind of disappointment for many renters who have seen a promising conversation go cold for reasons that have nothing to do with qualifications.

Then the landlord suddenly had a reason to end the chat, and the screenshots made the whole thing hard to miss.

A Twitter user named Abbas Ali posted screenshots of a chat he had with a landlord who had a room for rent

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The post contains two screenshots of the exchange this man had with the landlord and the caption: "My heart sinks when landlords ask this question because I already know I’m not getting the place then."

In the beginning, it all seemed normal.

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The man started by introducing himself as a prospective tenant. The landlord responded and asked Abbas when he would like to see the room.

Then the conversation took a sharper turn.

And then:

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The landlord indicated the time that worked for him and then began to ask questions. One of them was, "Where are you from?"

The ethnicity of the tenant seems to be important to the landlord.

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The man answered all the questions except the one about his ethnicity, so the landlord asked again, "Where are you from?"

When he heard the man was from Pakistan, the landlord unexpectedly remembered that the room was rented.

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Apparently, the room got rented while they were chatting…

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People online were not impressed.

This is the same kind of fairness fight as when a family with pet allergies was rejected by the “pet-friendly” landlord.

Twitter users were very sad and angry…

Some pointed out that the Fair Housing Act made such actions illegal.

This story is taking place in Dubai, and the regulations there are evidently different.

Some internet users shared their own experiences:

Some internet users shared their own experiences:

Want another landlord-tenant blowup? Read how a landlord demanded rent after firing a tenant.