Thousands of adverts for rental homes posted by letting agents and private landlords state that children or pets are not welcome, BBC analysis shows.
There are no laws explicitly stopping this, although that could change under the Renters’ Reform Bill.
In a BBC article yesterday, a single mother of three told the news platform that she and her son had been sofa-surfing while searching for a place to rent.
Propertymark featured in the piece stating that a government cap on deposits in England made landlords more wary of damage – specifically in relation to pets.
The National Residential Landlords Association said it recognised how important pets were to many tenants and that any bans on children reflected “the actions of a minority of rogue landlords”.
BBC News created software that collected private rental listings from property websites OpenRent and Zoopla over a four-day period in May, then removed adverts for rooms in shared accommodation.
The findings reveal that almost a quarter – 24% – of OpenRent adverts showed a preference that said families were not allowed to rent the homes – about 1,800 of just under 8,000 in the BBC’s sample.
More than 300 Zoopla listings explicitly said children were not wanted, although this was less than 1% of those analysed.
Some 73% of sampled OpenRent listings said tenants with pets were not welcome, compared with 6% on Zoopla
OpenRent – an online agent – allows landlords to tick a preferences box to specify whether children and pets are welcome, whereas Zoopla listings are posted by property agents and only sometimes mention the subject.
Almost 200 agents – or 2% of the Zoopla adverts the BBC analysed – explicitly said children were not welcome.
The Property Ombudsman, which helps settle rental disputes, said in March that blanket bans on renting to families breached its code of practice because they disproportionately affect women, who are more likely to live with their children.
“It’s already unlawful under the Equality Act to have an outright blanket ban on renting to families because this is a type of indirect discrimination,” said Rose Arnall, a solicitor at Shelter, who represented the tenant in the case featured on BBC News.
About one in six letting agents in the Zoopla listings analysed were advertising properties that explicitly banned tenants with pets.
Under the Renters (Reform) Bill, being considered by Parliament, tenants would be given the legal right to request to keep a pet in their home, which the landlord cannot unreasonably refuse.
Adam Hyslop, OpenRent’s founder, told the BBC that allowing landlords to show their preferences helped renters prioritise their searches.
“The decision of who to let to is entirely with the landlord. We also do not prevent tenants from enquiring about any property,” he said.
A Zoopla spokesperson said over 95% of rental listings on Zoopla “make no reference to homes being unsuitable to pets or children”.
“We’re unable to find clear evidence that agents are adopting blanket bans when uploading rental listings to Zoopla which would be in breach of guidance.”
Any agent that lists on Zoopla must abide by both its code of conduct and the law and the website recommends agents use “inclusive language and avoid marketing homes as unsuitable for a certain type of renter”, it said.
Propertymark said the BBC’s findings showed the importance of professional property agents because “blanket bans on advertising materials through a letting agent are demonstrably lower when compared with adverts by private landlords”.
The BBC’s analysis of OpenRent adverts relied on its site design, which used tickboxes to welcome or exclude families and pets.
Adam Hyslop, OpenRent’s founder, said the BBC’s approach of looking at a static snapshot of listings “is not likely to be accurate” due to more popular property listings spending less time on the website.”
