Is this discrimination ?
Agent said " what’s your salary ?"
I said "I’m retired "
Agent said " umm I’ll have to ask the Landlord if she will accept retired tenants "
Are you kidding me ?!!
You still have an income, you should have told the agent what it is
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Landlord refused viewing as I am RETIRED!
This tells us NOTHING. Are you financially stable, a good tenant, able to pay market value in the future? an increasing pension? Good affordibility ?
In 5 / 10 years time are you able to pay what is required as the market rate?
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Some people do retire younger (eg if they are very lucky financially tho not necessarily in other ways) butvit may be ageist and possibly indirect age discrimination
However shelter say (and @tatemono has rightly pointed out)
“Age, marriage, and being in a civil partnership are also protected characteristics but are not included for discrimination in renting out a home.”
See Shelter Legal England - Rental discrimination - Shelter England
Employment status isnt a protected characteristics either (so some LLs will prefer a person with an employer than the self employed for example)
Ultimately it’s up to LLs whom they choose to rent to. It probably feels just as unfair to students or those with pets who get refused viewings because that’s not what the LL wants
If you are retired and relying on a pension plus running down savings youve built up it may be harder to get past the automatic affordability checks and for LL to get RGI (I had an applicant a while ago like that - turned out after some digging his savings/stocks would run out within a year and he’d be relying on benefits, which wouldnt have covered the full rent so he’d be getting into arrears…)
Good luck
age is not a protected characteristic for the purposes of letting property (see your own link) so even if it is ageist, it’s not valid here.
Feel free to discriminate against LLs who don’t accept retirees by not giving them the time of day. (For context: I retired when I was 49)
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I was in the middle of editing my reply to say exactly that. But thank you
I didn’t get the chance.. I explained that I was a better bet than most as I wasn’t
A going to lose my job or income
B get divorced
C get pregnant
D ever lose my pensions
I also told her I have a guarantor…
Yes, to all those. Was not given the opportunity to explain.
One potential impact of being retired is that you are in the property a lot more than if you were out at work all day. This typically leads to higher wear and tear and potentially more maintenance.
LLs do not have to give a reason why they might not want to proceed with your application. To them, it will be justified and there’s very little chance you will change their mind. Best to move on and not let it rattle you.
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Its not fair, reasonable or good business sense to reject anybody above retirement age based on lazy assumptions or trivial matters such as extra wear and tear. Actually in my experience there has been far less wear and tear by older people who know how to look after a property.
If this were me I would probably write to the agent and ask whether they are happy to accept landlords who have a blanket ban on older people and then be prepared to put their response on every review website I could find.
Agree on fairness but we have no evidence of any blanket ban on older people being applied. Only that an agent wasn’t sure whether retired was acceptable to the LL. If an agent said they weren’t sure if a LL would accept students, a student would also say it was unfair, and it would be equally legal..
Best
ooh… something seems to have touched a nerve there David! I only mentioned that as a possible reason why someone might not want to rent to a retiree.
The world of letting property is full of LLs who aren’t fair, reasonable or have good business sense. If this were me, I’d simply move on and find another agent/LL.
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Not really, Ive just heard too many landlords repeating that assumption but never seen any quantifiable evidence that its true. My guess is that even if it were properly researched, we would find the amounts so small as to be practically negligible and if landlords/agents are ruling out whole groups of people based on this, we should all expect it to feature in the next round of discrimination legislation.
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Come and live in our house for a bit. I can tell you without a doubt that because my wife and I are both retired, the house has more wear and tear than if we were out at work all day like we used to be.
“Quantifiable evidence”? “Proper research”? “Discrimination legislation”? To me that all sounds as over the top as LLs who reject retired people for whatever personal reason they care to.
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Lets just agree to differ on this one then.
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Ha ha! You’re not retired if you run letting properties…!, even with an agent. 
I cannot see why you would have been rejected, particularly with a guarantor.
However, it would have been prudent to hand over proof of (pension) income at the outset.
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Trust me, running our five lets is a piece of cake compared to what I used to have to do for a living on top of running them.
But, yeah, there’ll be a very big bottle of champagne drunk on day when the last let is sold. Guaranteed.
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You have to like the potential tenant and they have to like you also. You can usually tell by a short conversation if you will gell. I never give a reason why someone is not chosen. I simply say I have gone with someone else
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