I’m wondering if some of you might be willing to provide some insight.
My husband was making arrangements to view a lovely and very suitable house for our family today, when the agent asked if we have children. We have one child, and so were denied, as the landlord has apparently said absolutely no children.
I’m quite taken aback.
I completely understand rules regarding pets, but this is the first I’m hearing about children.
Can anyone give me any idea as to why a landlord would not want a family? And, is that even legal?
As mentioned it is up to the Landlord but as a LL it has me scratching my head.
When we came to list our property with the local agent, it was the agent that stated we should have a ‘professional couple’ whereas we thought it would be an ideal family home. And everytime we had someone put forward for our consideration, there were no families included. As we didn’t have a problem in getting a stream of people viewing, we simply choose the best tenant presented to us.
There may be ‘agent bias’ (but have no evidence for it). It might pay to try going direct to a LL and making your case to them to see if there is something different with agents.
If TT are being awkward or troublesome, it’s more difficult to evict them if they have minors. Any judge will be careful about doing it. There was a post the other day where judge said they would refuse to evict TT who lied about just everything and hid their CCJs, forged the references,etc. because “they have children and pay the rent (for now)”.
I put half a house on it , but it did take 5 or so years !! I did plant two tree s , Dwarfed by the fact that i have planted 30 or so since then (I like trees)
We only have the one, and won’t be having any more. A four year old girl. Past the toddler stage, so normally fairly quiet, interested in things like dance vs making messes. She’s never even done so much as approach our walls with a crayon & we keep a truly immaculate, fit for a magazine home… but no one could know any of that without meeting us and I understand how tough the competition is, right now. We’ll continue searching!
I really do appreciate everyone’s input. Thank you!
with events like that you can only keep on trying .Same as with a girl the other day who said she never been in arrears but was below the"affordability check" . Surely there is a place somewhere for everyone
Oh dear I certainly hope there’s a place for everyone!
We’re among the unlucky whose landlords are selling, right now. Things seem to have changed since we were last looking and it’s proving rather difficult… a bit grim, really. We’ll keep at it and remain hopeful, though.
It may be illegal to have a blanket ban on children. Although families are not directly a protected characteristic, there have been successful cases brought as indirect discrimination of a protected class, namely women.
I doubt that there is much point in trying to tackle this landlord, but its probably a good idea to let the agent know that they should be advising their landlords accordingly.
We’re definitely moving on from that one, though it really is a shame. Something about a blanket ban on children sounded a bit off to me, and as a parent was just so incredibly off-putting. As others have said, it’s the landlord’s property and decision and I do respect that.
Wow discrimination against men.Older individuals will be protected I guess. I will have to take this up with my local Birmingham Council ! Some chance.
I certainly hope there’s a place for everyone!