Value assessment discrimination against Roma house owners

Alert DateApril 5, 2010 Country: Hungary Address: Budapest General Type: Discrimination Racism and discrimination phenomena: Anti-roma/zinghanophobia
Groups affected / Interested in: Roma & Travelers Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Housing
Victims Data
Victims Nationality/Ethnic Origin Hungarian
Victims Gender N/A
Victims Age N/A
Victims Number N/A
Fatalities - deaths N/A
Perpetrators Data
Perpetrators Nationality/Ethnic Origin Hungarian
Perpetrator Gender N/A
Perpetrator Age N/A
Perpetrators Number N/A
Extremist/Organised Group Violence No

A company performing the value assessment of houses for bank loans placed the houses of two Roma families into the category “C” (“not negotiable or hardly negotiable”). They claimed that the reason for this was their Roma origin. During the investigation of the Equal Treatment Authority it turned out that the company had categorised the real estates without actually visiting the scenes.  The company claimed that the reason for this was that earlier they had performed assessments in the streets where the houses were located, and the low prestige of the neighbourhood substantiated the categorisation. The Equal Treatment Authority established discrimination, and ordered the assesing company to pay a fine of 300.000 Ft. [1]

[1] Equal Treatment Authority '2010. legjellemzőbb esetei - 795-2010' (2010 most representative cases - 795/2010),  available at: http://www.egyenlobanasmod.hu/jogesetek/hu/795-2010.pdf (Date of access: 20.02.2012)