Discrimination is illegal – and landlords and letting agents are subject to this, as are many others providing services.
But what is discrimination?
As I discussed in this post , there are what are known as ‘protected characteristics’ which are as follows:
- age
- being or becoming a transsexual person
- being married or in a civil partnership
- being pregnant or on maternity leave
- disability
- race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
- religion, belief or lack of religion/belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
It is unlawful to discriminate against anyone applying to rent a property on the basis of any of these.
However, since I wrote that post in 2017, the law has moved on, and we now also have to take into account the rules about indirect discrimination.
Indirect discrimination
This is where you are discriminating on the basis of something which is not in itself a protected characteristic, but the discrimination has a worse effect on people with certain protected characteristics.
There are now two important types of indirect discrimination which affect renters:
1 Discrimination against applicants on benefit
By ‘benefit’, I mean all types of benefits, including Universal Credit). This has been found illegal as it disproportionately affects certain types of people with protected characteristics such as
- Women (55% of adults who receive Universal Credit are women)
- Disabled people, and
- Black and Bangladeshi households (Black households are almost three times more likely than White households to receive Universal Credit).
The case of Tyler v. Carr was about a disabled man who successfully claimed compensation on the basis that he was being discriminated against indirectly. You can read about this here and (at the end of the post) watch a webinar where one of the barristers discusses the case with me.
Mind you, landlords do not HAVE to grant a tenancy to applicants on benefit. If the applicant clearly can’t afford the rent, the landlord is justified in refusing to let to them.
However, the landlord or letting agent must treat them the same way as everyone else and not refuse to consider their application simply because they are on benefit.
Many benefit tenants are wonderful tenants who pay promptly and look after the property well. Remember that they may have savings or family willing to help them with the rent. So you need to give them the opportunity to explain this.
2 Discrimination against families with children
Blanket bans against families have also now been found to be indirect discrimination and against the equality legislation.
This is because women are more likely to have dependent children living with them than men. Which means that refusing applications for suitably sized homes from those with children will disproportionately affect women – who have the protected characteristic of sex.
This has now been upheld by the Property Ombudsman, and although I am not aware of any court cases yet, I am sure there will be.
I suspect that most Judges will rule in favour of applicants where a landlord or agent has refused to consider them as tenants, simply because they have children when the property appears to be suitable for them.
So what should landlords and letting agents do?
Never include phrases such as ‘no DSS’, ‘professionals only’ or ‘no kids’ in your adverts. If applicants are on benefit or have children, you need to consider them on their merits and not dismiss them out of hand.
Provided you have a reasonable reason for renting to someone else, you should be all right. However, blanket bans are just asking for applicants to sue you for compensation.
Reasonable reasons for refusing to accept applicants would be:
- That their income is not sufficient to pay the property rent
- That the property is too small for the family size, or even
- That there were many applicants for the property (assuming there were), and you can only choose one of them
Just so long as your reason is not ‘I never allow children in my properties’ (landlord) or ‘our instructions from the landlord are that children are not allowed’ (agent). Always give all applicants an opportunity to prove their suitability.
There is a helpful page on the Shelter website here with more information for landlords and agents.
What can you do if you are a tenant?
Times are tough for tenants just now, what with the shortage of available rented property generally and the rent hikes, due to landlords having to cover their increased mortgage payments following recent interest rate rises.
If you come across agents who are refusing to consider your application, then (assuming you can afford the property and it is suitable for your family) you can complain to their Property Redress Scheme about it.
Shelter have a useful page here with guidance and a helpful template for a letter or email you can send to agents who have refused to consider you because you have children.
And finally
The real problem behind all these issues is the lack of suitable homes available to rent.
So far as low-income families are concerned, this is likely to continue until (as I discussed here) we have a government which removes the ‘right to buy’ and encourages Local Authorities to embark on a big social house-building program.
But that is clearly not the Conservative government we have at the time of writing this post!