Court date: would banning 'No DSS' rental ads help low-income tenants find homes — or add to the confusion?

Shelter's war on 'No DSS' rental ads won't help tenants whose benefits don't cover the rent.
£2,500 a month: this four-bedroom house in Bexhill Road, Brockley, is available unfurnished. Through Pedder (020 3858 3488).
Victoria Whitlock29 October 2018

When private landlords like me say in rental ads that we won't accept tenants on benefits, it must seem mean or offensive. It probably looks like we're saying to the many people who rely on benefits to survive that they're not good enough to live in our properties. Now homelessness charity Shelter is claiming we might even be breaking the law.

Shelter's argument is that landlords and letting agents who openly state "No DSS" — short for no housing benefit applicants — or "professional tenants only" in their rental ads could be guilty of indirect discrimination, as most adults claiming housing benefit are women or disabled and it is illegal to discriminate against anyone on grounds of their sex or a disability. Apparently, Shelter plans to take some agents to court to test the law.

I wonder what the charity hopes to achieve. While it isn't nice to see "No DSS" in property ads, surely that's better than leading tenants up the garden path and showing them round, only to say at the end: "Sorry, you can't live here, you can't afford it."

Many London rents are well above the housing benefit threshold, yet I know from experience that unless you state in adverts that you'll only consider professional tenants, you'll get lots of enquiries from people claiming benefits — possibly because they're unaware of the benefits limit; sometimes because they're desperate and they hope they can talk you into giving them the property anyway.

I do have one flat where the rent is below the housing benefit threshold and when I bought the place three years ago I was open to "DSS" tenants. I was looking for a long let and I thought that as the flat was quite cheap it might suit a young, low-income family. Unlike some other mortgage lenders, mine didn't limit me to letting only to professionals, so I put "DSS applicants welcome" in my rental advert. Not surprisingly, I had loads of enquiries from tenants on benefits, mostly young families. However, they had all overestimated the benefits they were entitled to and none could actually afford the rent.

One young couple insisted housing benefit would cover all their rent, but after waiting ages for them to fill out application forms, I found they were only entitled to a small contribution and couldn't afford the rest.

The benefits system is complex and landlords who let to claimants really need to know what they're doing, not least because there are often delays in tenants receiving the money, and mistakes can sometimes occur which lead to them being underpaid or overpaid, potentially causing financial hardship for both them and their landlord. The introduction of Universal Credit seems only to have caused more confusion.

I know of several landlords who specialise in letting to tenants on benefits and have very successful businesses — mainly landlords with large portfolios who can afford to allocate the time and resources it takes to deal with the benefits system and, as a result, they have some happy, long-term tenants. It's a win-win for everyone. But many small private landlords and their letting agents don't have the experience to wade into this area, so forcing them to accept applicants they can't handle will do a disservice to everyone, including the tenants themselves.

  • Victoria Whitlock lets four properties in south London. To contact Victoria with your ideas and views, tweet @vicwhitlock