Blanket bans on letting properties to families with children discriminate against women and are against the sector’s code of practice in England, the Property Ombudsman has ruled, after an NHS nurse and mother challenged the practice.
Lexi Levens, 33, and her four children were forced to register as homeless after they were handed a no-fault eviction on Christmas Eve and no landlords or letting agents would rent to them, despite her and her husband passing affordability checks.
With support from the housing and homelessness charity Shelter, Levens took her case to the ombudsman, which decided that “no children” bans breach equality rules laid out in its code of practice because they disproportionately affect women.
Levens, an NHS neonatal nurse, said: “The fact kids could be discriminated against is abhorrent and should never have been able to happen. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me, yet the more I talked about it, the more people came forward saying they’d experienced the same or knew someone who had.
“My situation was nothing short of distressing and humiliating. I’m so thrilled by the outcome of the challenge, this has never been about money for me, but about putting a stop to families like mine being treated unfairly.”
One in five (19%) parents – equating to almost 300,000 families in England – have been unable to rent somewhere they wanted in the last five years because they have children, according to Shelter.
The ombudsman’s decision means its letting agent members will not be able to include blanket bans in property listings – or follow a landlord’s orders to – without reasonable evidence or justification. If they do so, they will be in breach of its code of practice and may be required to pay compensation to anyone discriminated against.
Rose Arnall, a solicitor at Shelter, said: “No one should be barred from finding a safe and stable home simply because they have children. Whether you can secure a home must not be based on a landlord or letting agent’s baseless prejudices about the ‘type’ of tenant you might be.
“Thanks to Lexi’s hard work, letting agents can be crystal clear that blanket bans on renting to families are unacceptable. This is a great step forward in addressing the power imbalance which sees tenants hitting unfair barriers and being forced to jump through ridiculous hoops.”
Levens and Shelter urged the government to make law without delay the renters’ reform bill, announced by Theresa May in 2019. The bill would make it illegal for landlords or agents to have blanket bans on renting to families with children or those in receipt of benefits and end no-fault evictions, also known as section 21 notices.
Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, said: “The government’s renters’ reform bill – which will make discrimination explicitly unlawful – is ready and waiting. The government needs to stop stalling and make it law once and for all.”
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Peter Habert, the director of policy at the Property Ombudsman, said: “Whilst rental properties are investments for landlords, they are homes for tenants. To be excluded from a significant portion of the homes available simply because you have children cannot be considered as treating consumers equally.
“Prospective tenants should only expect to see these restrictions in property adverts and listings if the property is unsuitable, for example it doesn’t have enough space.”
He said that if a letting agent received such an instruction from a landlord they should ask them to provide evidence of why it is appropriate so that the reason can be communicated to prospective tenants.
