Is this ageist or not?

[ohflowerofscotland]

I called an estate agent today to arrange a property for rent in a better and nicer area closer to our family. We are currently renting and can get a good reference from our landlord - no rent missed (sometimes even paid earlier than required) and we have kept the house in good condition.

The property we want to view is gorgeous and in a good location. However, Landlord rang me back today and said no, we are too young and he won't even consider us as he had young tenants before and they trashed the house. I explained that I was sorry to hear that but we are genuine people who just want to make a nice home for ourselves and our young baby.

Is this not unfair? aibu to think you can't tar everyone with the same brush?

Depends on how old you are.

18 or 19, tbh I probably wouldn't rent to you either.

28 or 29, wouldn't see the issue.

Do you work? Most LL won't rent to people on benefits as their LL insurance will most likely insist on full time employed tenants only.

Were 22 and we are both in full time work. Have been since we were 18

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Is that not age discrimination? That is to say, illegal?

Is there any law against age discrimination outside the workplace? I thought it only applied to employer/employee. Outside of work, anyone can be as ageist as they like to anyone else.

Age discrimination law applies everywhere! Not just in the workplace!

Apparently landlords cannot discriminate on grounds of sex, age etc

In reality (and as a landlord myself) you can choose who to rent your property out to

I wouldn’t have a problem with renting mine out to someone your age, and have done. They are very nice, very sensible, no problems at all.

Is there any law against age discrimination outside the workplace?

Yes but somethings are exempt.

Renting isn't exempt.

You would apply the exact same law as you would if they denied the property to someone who is disabled or because they were of a particular ethnicity.

Definitely ageist.

Can you imagine if you came on here and said “landlord has said he won’t rent to us cos we’re black/gay and he had black/gay tenants before who trashed the place”.

Do you suppose posters would reply “well, just how black/gay are you? If you’re really black/gay, I wouldn’t rent to you either”?

It’s unfair, but probably little you can do about it. Good luck with the hunt.

For some reason, both 'age' and 'marriage and civil partnership' are excluded from the anti-discrimination laws that apply to housing so landlords are allowed to discriminate on the basis of age.

I don't think it's right though. Seems a bit of an arbitrary exception.

england.shelter.org.uk/legal/courts_and_legal_action/equality_law/equality_act_2010_discrimination_in_relation_to_premises

MrsSquiggler I assume it’s because some properties are in blocks or areas where they do aim for a certain age group, like they wouldn’t rent a flat in a block mostly full of retired people to a teenage couple.

I'm not convinced that legally they are allowed to discriminate on this basis but if there are a choice of tenants all interested then they are entitled to pick between them I think? Our last rental property the landlord had a choice between us, a family, and a group of adult sharers. Presumably he perceived that we would be more likely to stay put for longer and thus less risk of a fallow period between tenants!

Their attitude does seem unfair to you though. Hope you find something soon.

maybe the neighbours are elderly? Concerns about noise? You may have parties, you may decide to have kids - that's noisy.

Thanks everyone, I thought it was discrimination but I guess there's nothing we can do. I think it's really unfair

LL said he thought we would trash it because we are young. Such an unfair generalisation

I wouldn't want a landlord with an attitude like that anyway - it'll be for the best in the long run. Good luck with your house hunt!