CityVision is a Texas-based not-for-profit corporation which tests whether housing facilities engage in discrimination by having their agents pose as prospective tenants. In 2016, respondent Leigh Renner, a CityVision employee, placed a test call to petitioner Clifton Park Apartments, LLC, as owner of Pine Ridge II Apartments (Pine Ridge)—a housing facility located in New York—purportedly seeking to rent an apartment. Following that call, CityVision filed a complaint with DHR, alleging that Pine Ridge had discriminated against Renner based on her familial status in violation of the Human Rights Law (see Executive Law § 296 [5] [a] [1]). CityVision maintained [*2]that Pine Ridge steered Renner to a different apartment complex after discovering that she intended to reside in the apartment with her children.
DHR investigated CityVision's complaint and dismissed it, concluding that there was no probable cause to support a finding{**41 NY3d at 330} that Pine Ridge engaged in familial status discrimination. Following DHR's determination, Pine Ridge's attorney, petitioner David H. Pentkowski, Esq., sent a letter to CityVision and Renner on Pine Ridge's behalf. The letter stated that Pine Ridge considered the allegations in CityVision's DHR complaint to be "false, fraudulent and libelous." The letter explained that Pine Ridge was "looking to" CityVision and Renner "personally for the damages that" Pine Ridge "sustained as a result of this wrongful conduct." The letter concluded by stating that if CityVision and Renner did not respond within a stated period, Pine Ridge would "assume that" they did "not intend to take responsibility for these actions and [would] proceed accordingly." In response, CityVision and Renner filed a second complaint, alleging that Pine Ridge and Pentko