It took him several days, but I did finally hear back from him on Wednesday afternoon. I really thought he was using the "silence" technique in his negotiation, but he claimed that my email went into the SPAM folder and I don't have any reason to doubt that this was true.
Unfortunately, he was also unwilling to concede to any of my negotiated prices or rent terms that I put forth. He reiterated what the property manager said about it being an issue of following the Fair Housing Law. I have since done a little research on the Fair Housing Law and although there's nothing to state that all people have to pay the same rent at any property, it does prohibit discrimination based on race, sex, and all other protected classes. Therefore, I believe that the property management wishes to avoid any accusations of being discriminatory, by simply not negotiating on any prices. That way they would never be accused of giving someone a better deal because, say, the person is white; or avoid the appearance that, perhaps, they were discriminating against a homosexual person because he had to pay more than a heterosexual tenant.
I still believe that they could have agreed to giving Brad the original shorter lease term, since they already had given his roommate the shorter lease term. This wouldn't really get them into any trouble with Fair Housing Issues since they could simply honor the first lease term that he agreed to before the new management came. But, since my son never signed anything, he pretty much is out of luck.
I believe that this negotiation was doomed from the start because of this Fair Housing issue that I wasn't aware of during my preparations, but at least it was a learning experience.
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