Letting Agents That Rejected A Housing Benefit Claimants Flouted Equality Laws

BBC

The ABC have long argued against blanket discrimination of those on benefits.

Lettings agents and landlords around the country who reject housing benefit claimants could be flouting equality laws, due a recent legal case.

Single mother Rosie Keogh won compensation for sex discrimination from a lettings agency that refused to consider her as a tenant because she was on state benefit.

Rosie Keogh a cleaner and former paralegal successfully argued that blanket bans on benefit claimants indirectly discriminated against women, especially single women after attempt to rent a property in a smart area of Birmingham in May 2016 was blocked when the lettings agent found she would pay some of the rent via housing benefit.

This is because they are proportionately more likely to be claiming housing benefit than single men, according to official figures.

Image: Single mother Rosie Keogh and son.

The agent told her it would not be proceeding with her application for a property in Kings Heath before it had looked into her individual circumstances or assessed how reliable a tenant she would be. She had been living in the same property for 11 years with the rent being paid in full every time.

After a letter of complaint was dismissed by the agents, the mother of one issued a claim for discrimination in the county court.

And Rosie is not alone. There are whole areas of towns and cities in England that have become virtual no-go zones for people on housing benefit because lettings agents and landlords are unwilling to deal with them.

According to the BBC a survey of 1,137 private landlords for housing charity Shelter in 2017 found that 43% had an outright ban on letting to such claimants. A further 18% preferred not to let to them. Rosie was supported in her case by Shelter.

Eighteen months after Rosie first began her fightback, lettings agent Nicholas George admitted indirect discrimination on the grounds of her sex, settling out of court with £2,000 compensation.

The case established the principle of sexual discrimination under the Equality Act. The government has stated this kind of discrimination against people on benefits is illegal.