To be worried about this accusation of age discrimination?

[HeritageQuay]

So I rent out rooms in my house and because I am working a long way away I get a female friend to meet the applicants and show them around. We do our best to keep the property in a good condition and over the years we have developed a series of characteristics that we look for in prospective tenants. One of the criteria we have is that all the tenants have to be of similar ages. Ultimately it's a modern house and there is not much privacy.

I use SpareRoom and there is a section on their website for "New flatmate preferences" and I have put "Female, 21-30, professional, references required"

A lady messaged me last week wanting to view the room. Her profile said that she was a professional 30 year old and so I let her view the room, and my friend showed her round. Turned out she was 50. She said that she had made a mistake when registering on the website and did not know how to change her age. Otherwise she was perfect, and she wanted the room. However my friend was against letting her have the room because she was "too old".

Anyway I asked the existing tenants what they thought, and they politely said that they too thought this lady was too old. Specifically, they felt that the location of the empty room, opposite the downstairs toilet and next to the kitchen, would result in this lady making of lot of complaints about the noise in the house.

So I politely messaged the lady saying that the room was right by the kitchen and I was worried that she would find the house too noisy, and it was probably best that she looked somewhere else.

However, unbeknownst to me, the lady had also phoned my friend and my friend had straight out told her "Sorry, you are too old for the house!"

Now the lady is threatening to report me for age discrimination. My reply was, no, not at all, it is just that the other housemates did not think you would fit into the household. In any case, the advert specifically said ages 21-30. The lady is still not happy and is saying she will take this further.

I appreciate that there is a law against age discrimination but surely a landlord has to right to choose who he wants to let his property to?

Anyway, the reason for posting is, should I be worried about this, and what should I do differently in future to prevent this happening again?

Well.. you kind of are

This does sound like age discrimination.

You’re specifically saying you want tenants within a certain age range. It is age discrimination.

It's allowed in rental. Rentals specifying certain minimum age for example, are normal thing.

But is she not going to be a lodger in ops house so she has more say?

Both the charity Shelter & the lettings site Spareroom state that age is not recognised as a protected characteristic when letting accommodation

Shelter

Spareroom

Thank you @NoseyNellie. That's made me feel a lot better!

www.roomlets.rentals/info/avoiding-discrimination-letting-room

According to this article, you should be OK.

Im pretty sure age isn’t a protected characteristic when it comes to letting OP, and discrimination rules that would usually apply to landlords don’t apply to live in landlords.

I wouldn’t worry OP, it’s not likely anything will come of it. No one can force you to let them live with you and it’s not uncommon to have more specific requirements for a lodger than say someone you’re letting a property to, or employing.

Who is she going to report you to?! Block her and move on. I disliked renting with much older people and would have preferred people my age.

Poor woman.

Age discrimination is allowed quite a lot, actually, bit eye-opening, that.

Sex discrimination is also allowed when letting a room in your own home, though, it's a personal thing that shouldn't be policed, imho.

Tell her to crack on. Its up to you who you have in your house

Exactly! And its not really going to be a good start to living together, unless it's a scam re her 'mistake' about her age and she'll promise not to complain if you pay her deposit to rent elsewhere.

The poor woman. She committed the crime of ageing.
Stay 30 folks.

I had indeed wondered if it was such a tactic, @MichelleScarn.

Same like others commited crime of being under preferred age of housemates in another house🤷🏻 Or even flats. Would you do same "aw poor you" at someone moaning they can't get certain lovely flats nearby on a great transport route because they are not over 55? (Yes I am still bitter about one super pretty one where I got excited and then realised it's 25 years away😂)

It's really understandable why there are leniencies, especially when it comes to renting a room.

It's a bit different surely. These rare 55+ places exist because of the RIFE preference for younger tenants/candidates no matter whether it's for a house, a job, or just an opportunity.

Of course it's shit competing for anything when you're old. And when you read threads like this where people are so casually posting for help being ageist without being labelled ageist I do have to roll my eyes.

The fact is, you had requested 21-30. She knew that and turned up aged 50, she was chancing her luck. If you rent to her now she’ll always hold this over you and you may end up chasing her for rent etc. She should have scrolled past your ad when she saw it and realised she wasn’t the right fit.

What communication method is she using?

If it's text I'd say some like 'I'm sorry you feel like that' and stop engaging.

If it's phone stop answering.

You haven't broken any laws and you don't need to keep justify anything to her.

Your friend needs to learn some diplomacy, but the lady who was shown round was a CF even looking around, when it was clear that she didn't meet the stated age preference.

It is initially discriminatory but you would be able to justify it in the circumstances i really wouldn't worry about it.

Your friend is a nasty person. I wouldn't ask her to do any more viewings.

I’m 50 now and I wouldn’t want to live in a shared house like the one I occupied (very happily) as a graduate between the ages of 22-28. By 27, I was tired of the lifestyle and ready to move on. I couldn’t see it working with this age gap tbh.

That's why there is a good chance that she's just after some quick "go away" money. A friend's relative has a habit for it (only with vacancies, not rentals). It is mind boggling how many times she was just paid several hundred to stop making noise.