A young couple have claimed that they were told by a letting agent that they could not rent a home because they are under 25.
They say the un-named agent, in Eastbourne, told them the landlord would not even allow them to view the property.
Sadie Murphy, 20, who is 20-weeks pregnant and home-hunting with her partner Matt Carr, said: “I think it’s completely wrong. It’s discrimination.”
David Cox, chief executive of ARLA Propertymark, said: “Landlords and letting agents are not allowed to discriminate for any of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010; age being one of them.”
He said there were only certain circumstances, such as retirement properties, where they were lawful age exemptions.
www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/news/eastbourne-couple-told-too-young-to-rent-home-1-8492541
Comments (5)
Wouldnt it have been easier to simply tell the applicants that the accommodation had been let, by the landlord, other agent or whatever? That’s how to discriminate against applicants.
I thought that age discrimination was only for employment not property. How do you restrict properties to over 55s then?
It did, but our wonderful group of MP’s who have so much enthusiasm when it suits them brought out the Equality Act 2010 which amongst other things makes age discrimination cover just about anything. However they left a clause in the regulations that you can discriminate on age if you can show “Objective justification” in addition to some specific exclusions.
Isn’t EYE wonderful, it just helped you keep out of jail!
Are ARLA correct?????
Objective justification for age-related decisions
Even if you are not covered by an exception and want to restrict your goods or services or set conditions or pricing that are different according to different age groups, you can still do so, provided that you have and if necessary can show that you have a sufficient reason for doing so. The legal term for this is ‘objective justification’.
How does objective justification work?
Objective justification is showing that any age discrimination is ‘a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’.
If you can show sufficient reason, then you can still, for example:-
• Refuse to rent a self catering holiday home to people under (say) 21 years of age.
The above is the UK government own guidance!
All that landlord needs to do is show why he considers an under 25 is a risk to his investment, possibly all under 25 he’s had before have been bad tenants and financially lost out … would be good enough?
It would be good to have some background to this story. What is the current situation of Sadie and her boyfriend? Are they both fully employed, do they have the required deposit, are there any other reasons why the letting agent didnt want to deal with them. Is the story made up? Did the situation actually take place?
I would suspect that there is much more to this than simply….big bad letting agent wouldn’t rent to sweet young couple who want a first family home!