Lawsuit settled over alleged racially motivated house appraisal in Marin City

English

This week, their lawyers announced that a real estate appraiser sued for alleged housing discrimination based on race has settled with a Marin City couple.

Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin are a black couple with children who filed a federal lawsuit in 2021 against Miller and Perotti Real Estate Appraisals, a company based in San Rafael. The Austins claimed that appraiser Janet Miller severely undervalued their property as they prepared to attempt to refinance their mortgage.

The Austins purchased a 1,248-square-foot home in unincorporated Marin City near Sausalito in 2016 for $550,000. According to them, the couple has invested heavily in modernizing and expanding their home. They renovated the floors, relocated the walls, added a gas fireplace and half bath, upgraded the appliances and fixtures, and added at least 270 square feet. They were also in the process of building an additional housing unit.

After all the improvements, the Austins wanted to refinance their mortgage and needed an appraisal, according to their lawyers.

In January 2020, Miller valued their house at $995,000, much less than they expected.

“The Austins believe their race and Marin City’s racial demographics played a role in the low valuation,” said a spokesman for the Northern California Fair Housing Advocates (FHANC), a nonprofit organization that represented the family.

Suspiciously, they contacted another company and assigned a new estimate. This time, the Austins removed photos of their family and African-American art from the house. They also had a white girlfriend who posted photos of her white family and greeted the appraiser at the door, the statement said.

The second appraisal showed an estimated value of their house at $1,482,500, nearly half a million more than the first.

Austin agreed with Miller and Perotti for an undisclosed sum of money with additional terms. First, the company is committed to not discriminate in the future, FHANC said in a statement. The company also agreed to watch a documentary on housing discrimination and attend a training session on the history of real estate segregation and discrimination in Marin County.

“This is a landmark case,” said Caroline Pitty, chief executive of FHANC. “The Austin case was a prime example of how an unfairly low valuation can affect your ability to access good credit and create generational wealth.”

Tenisha Tate-Austen said having to erase her identity in order to get a better grade was excruciating.

“Colored neighborhoods have historically been undervalued due to deliberate racist housing policies such as redlining,” she said in a statement released by FHANC. “The continued undervaluation of homes in black neighborhoods perpetuates the wealth gap between black and white families. We hope that by bringing attention to our case and the settlement of the lawsuit, we can help change the way the appraisal industry works and we can see a different trend.”

Janet Miller did not respond to a request for comment.

Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.

English