Renting: 'Mentally ill tenants face discrimination'

[justasking111]

People with mental health issues can face discrimination when trying to rent privately, the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru (CIH) has warned.

It wants better mental health information for landlords and for compulsory awareness training courses.

The Residential Landlords Association said that it did not see discrimination on a regular basis but landlords were looking for the lowest risk approach.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47291113

Will this be useful do you think?

I'm a LL. How would I know a potential tenant has a mental health problem? It's not obvious when you meet someone. If the tenant says nothing then how are they going to be discriminated against?

They are suggesting landlords go on a course so they recognise a problem and know how to approach it.

If they don’t recognise the problem it’s not discrimination though. Do they mean the rental system (like most things in life I suppose) is harder to navigate with mh illness?

You can't force people to go on a course. Who has so much contact with their landlord that the LL would notice mh issues? LL care about the rent being paid on time and the house not getting trashed and that's it really. If you start forcing them to get involved in people's personal business, they'll conclude that bring a LL is more hassle than it's worth and they'll be even fewer properties available for rent.

You can force landlords to do a course in Wales. Rentsmart Wales ensure landlords register for a fee. Then the licensing course became mandatory for another fee, the licence lasts five years. I expect there will be more courses they will be expected to take so why not this one? There is a fine for non compliance.

www.rentsmart.gov.wales/en/landlord/

Gregory they were so vague about this. If I was to hazard a guess it would be about rent arrears or not reporting a fault which might damage the fabric of the property. Who knows. Anything which costs the landlord money might put their tenancy at risk.

I think I'm with the landlord on this. They have a right to go with minimum risk tenants. MH issues can cover an awful lot of different scenarios - not really fair to expect a private landlord to know or care. An online course doesn't equip anyone to assess anything properly. The real problem here is that people with mh issues are not sufficiently supported by the state generally, which exacerbates their problems and means they might in some cases be a riskier prospect.

LL are not here to fulfill a nanny role of the state.

LL have the right to go with the lowest risk tenant.

If someone is paying the rent and keeping the house in good order, the LL doesn't care that they are depressed/whatever.

Stop doing either of those two things no longer a desirable tenant in the business transaction.

Councils should stop palming vulnerable people off into private tenancies. Much better for the vulnerable and those with MH issues to be in LA properties.

So if a LL then discovers a tenant has developed MH issues is there support available to protect the LL property from destruction if the tenant is displaying their MH issues in that way? ( hoarding/not reporting repairs/etc)

Unless the government start to pay all landlords directly (if the tenants are on benefits) or make up the shortfall for non payment (due to the MH issues) and cover the potential costs of damage to the properties from tenants, then they will be continue to be discriminated against as most landlords can't afford to cover the extra costs involved.

Well quite!

A 'course' is all well and good, but it needs to be of a benefit to the LL for their engagement