Landlord denies tenant over bizarre question on application: 'That's illegal'

A woman has revealed the shocking reason she and her partner were denied a property by the landlord.

After inspecting a property in Tennessee, Christina Mayo and her partner, Devante Mclemore, were filling out their individual rental applications when they both came across a strange section labelled “Freedom of Religion”.

Under the section, the landlord had written the statement "I acknowledge that the landlord of this property is a professing Christian," with the potential tenant having four options to choose from.

Despite this seeming unusual, the couple pressed on and submitted their applications. Though after doing so, they received a bizarre email communication from the landlord, who denied their application due to their response to the section.

"Dear Christina and Devante," the email posted by Ms Mayo on Facebook read.

"I was able to take a quick look at your applications and I immediately saw that I will not be able to approve your applications. Both of you checked off that you are Christians and so I need to work with you as a brother and sister in Christ. In that case, both of you should know that living together outside of wedlock is a sin."

He even included the 'sin' from the bible for reference. As if that wasn't enough, he continued to say that he "can’t aid and abet (them) in disobeying dad".

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"Think about all the things that have blown up or gone wrong in your life," he wrote. "I'm certain that those things did not occur because you were seeking righteousness. Rather they happened because you went against what dad said."

"Let me encourage both of you to look at this letter (which I bet you never saw coming) as a moment to have a serious conversation between yourselves about building the rest of your life on a more firm foundation."

Completely dumbfounded by the response, Ms Mayo decided to chase up the landlord via text — also posting a screenshot to Facebook.

"I literally just read it and am confused," she said in the exchange. "You’re denying us because we are not married?"

To which he responded that it was because they were specifically "Christian and unmarried."

"Had you marked “not Christian” then I would have gone ahead with the application review," he said.

Outraged, she pointed out to him that by "passing judgement" he is inadvertently "sinning", which she's sure "God wouldn’t like".

Social media users react to 'illegal' behaviour by landlord

After feeling "bamboozled", Ms Mayo posted about the experience, with the post racking up more than 1000 reactions and almost 2000 shares.

Just like the couple, people were clearly shocked that something like this happened.

"Religious discrimination is illegal," one person said.

"That's a huge lawsuit," said another.

"I'd say you dodged a bullet on this one," a third person said.

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