A Western Massachusetts landlord will pay $6,000 and delead two rental units to resolve allegations that it discriminated against families with children, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced on Friday.

The assurance of discontinuance, filed on Friday in Suffolk Superior Court, alleges that 253 Center St. Properties Inc. of East Longmeadow refused to rent to families with children because doing so would trigger its obligation to remove lead paint hazards from its rental units. 

Under state law, it is illegal to discriminate against housing applicants because they have children or because renting to particular tenants would require the landlord to abate lead hazards.

According to the settlement, 253 Center St., which owns and manages rental properties in Agawam, Chicopee and Springfield, allegedly posted a discriminatory advertisement for one of its Chicopee properties on Craigslist. The advertisement specifically stated that families with young children were not eligible to rent the apartment because the unit had not been deleaded.

Agents for 253 Center St. allegedly also told two separate "testers" from the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center that the company could not rent the apartment to a family with children under the age of six because the unit was not deleaded, and the company was not planning to delead the unit in the near future. 

Under the terms of the assurance of discontinuance, 253 Center St. will pay $6,000 to the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center and delead both units in its Chicopee property within two years. If the company sells or transfers the property before obtaining letters of full deleading compliance, it will be required to pay $20,000 to the Childhood Lead Paint Prevention Program. An additional payment of $2,500 to the Commonwealth will be suspended pending compliance with the other terms of the assurance. The settlement also requires all employees of 253 Center St. to attend fair housing training.