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The Washington, D.C.-based Equal Rights Center has filed complaints against six apartment rental companies, alleging that they discriminated against people who sought to rent units using vouchers for housing subsidies.

Montgomery County law prohibits landlords from discriminating against would-be tenants based on the source of their income.

The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld that law in 2007, overturning Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Durke Thompson's decision in 2006 that landlords could not be required to accept the vouchers.

Joined by the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, the ERC filed discrimination complaints against the companies that operate Park Bethesda and Topaz House in Bethesda, Fireside Park and Avalon at Traville in Rockville, and Arbor Crest and Rock Creek Springs in Silver Spring.

The civil rights groups say the complaints are based on telephone and in-person surveys conducted by trained testers who contacted apartment rental agents, generally asking first if a unit was available, then, if vouchers were accepted.

"In some cases, [agents] outright refused: ‘We don't take vouchers' — read that: ‘You can't live here,'" Donald Kahl, executive director of the Equal Rights Center, said Tuesday, after the group filed complaints with the county's Office of Human Rights in Rockville.

According to the complaints, people representing themselves as employees of Topaz, Arbor Crest, Fireside and Park Bethesda told callers the complexes did not accept Housing Choice Vouchers.

People representing themselves as agents of Rock Creek Springs and said their limits on using vouchers had been reached and agents of Avalon at Traville said they had restrictions on using vouchers, the complaints state.

In a telephone interview, Kenneth H. Becker, president of Rakusin & Becker, which owns and operates Topaz, denied discrimination took place. He said his company would accept vouchers but that rental rates are usually higher than tenants with vouchers can meet or are allowed to pay.

The average annual income for a voucher holder is $14,000, and the average annual rent for an apartment in the county is $14,000, Kahl said.

Susan Toland, a division manager for the Donaldson Group, which operates Arbor Crest, said the company does not discriminate and that three of four names cited as employees in the complaint have never worked there.

Sharon Handler, manager of Fireside Park, also said names in the complaint do not match employees and that they accept vouchers and 18 percent of their tenants use them.

Richard Bunch, property manager for Rock Creek Springs, said an employee mentioned in the complaint had problems understanding policies and the county law and no longer works there. Bunch said Rock Springs accepts vouchers.

According to a report on a survey the group conducted last year, rental agents said in 11 percent of test calls to 99 properties that they did not accept housing vouchers. In 3 percent of those calls, rental agents said their quota of housing vouchers had been reached and that they were not accepting more. And in 1 percent of the calls, rental agents said that voucher users could rent but weren't eligible for special offers, such as rent reductions.

The Office of Human Rights will review the complaints and decide whether they meet standards to begin investigations, which could result in civil penalties of $10,000 for a first offense and $5,000 for humiliation and embarrassment, said David E. Hughley, acting compliance director.