Two apartment listings in Brooklyn that have now been deleted specified that tenants will be banned from cooking meat in the lister's home.
The ad, which was published on Nextdoor.com, made the places sound super enticing as per a report by the New York Times; "two spacious, sun-drenched, full-floor apartments in a wide brick townhome in Fort Greene with spectacular outdoor spaces and period details."
But what's the catch?
The "wonderful vegan landlord" - as described by the broker - had one major house rule: no meat or fish could be cooked in the building.
The apartments, which were put on the rental market for $4,500 and $5,750 a month respectively, were still available to meat-eaters, as long as none of the products were being cooked inside of the home - takeaways were fine though.
Andrea Kelly, a broker, explained the possible reasons behind the unique listing.
"It’s not vegetarian-only, but the owner lives in the building and doesn’t want the smell of cooking meat drifting upstairs," she said.
The outlet reported that the owner of the home refused to give any sensible reasonings for their decision to exclude meat lovers, but her ex-husband, who also co-owns the building and is vegan, said that this has been a rule for them since buying the place all the way back in 2007.
"It’s not about discrimination," he said. "You have to fit into the building."
According to New York City's Human Rights Law, there are 14 bases in which landlord aren't allowed to discriminate including gender identity/expression, race, age and citizenship status.
No where does it mention anything about food preferences or anything of a similar nature, so technically it is legal.
Lucas A. Ferrara, a professor at New York Law School and co-author of the book Landlord and Tenant Practice in New York, said potential tenants have a chance of fighting against it if they had a medical condition or any other similar justification to overturn the rule.
This would mean that the landlord would have no choice but to provide "reasonable accommodation."
However, Ferrara did also add that "the restriction would otherwise be permissible" if there was no excuse of such a nature provided.
While some vegans are okay with the idea of cooking meat, others aren't.
Take for example this one family from Australia who sent a note to their neighbors asking them to stop cooking meat with the window open.
A woman named Sarah - who lives in the northern suburb of Burns Beach, Australia - penned a note to her neighbor, addressing concerns about the "upsetting" aroma of meat coming from the house.
She urged the people that live next door to take the "important message" seriously and proceeded to tell them to shut the window whenever they cooked meat.
"Hello, Neighbour. Could you please shut your side window when cooking, please? My family are vegan (we eat only plant-based foods) and the smell of the meat you cook makes us feel sick and upset," the note read. "We would appreciate your understanding. Thanks. Sarah, Wayne & Kids."
Later on, when the neighbor seemingly ignored the request, Sarah doubled down on her views, even threatening to take action against them.
"I raised my concerns of the smell of meat making my family feel sick and upset and you go and have a BBQ on Saturday night inviting lots of people, and you knew this would affect me and my family," another note read.
"My friend Tina told me you took my letter to social media and it backfired on you which is just desserts [sic] adding" "Please no more BBQs and please keep that window closed when cooking otherwise I'm going to report you and go to social media too."
Big yikes.
