Sex for rent

[Hartley99]

I was just watching a documentary on the sex for rent scandal. Basically, landlords offer a room in exchange for sex. In most cases, the landlords are older men and the renters are young women. Apparently, it is common in places with large student populations - in other words, where there are lots of very young women who are struggling with debts/ loans.

The whole thing really sickened me. A journalist (herself a young woman) secretly filmed a meeting with one of these landlords. She posed as a young student who had seen his ad and wanted to know more. It made my skin crawl. He was late 40s, and a repulsive, creepy little nerd who could hardly contain his excitement. But what sickened me the most was that not only did he not think he was doing anything wrong, he thought he was being generous! He seemed to think he was doing her a favour! That seemed to be the attitude of all these men.

The other thing that got me was the comments below the video. I had naively expected people to write how vile it all was, how these men were taking advantage of the housing shortage, how they were targeting very young women, and so on. In fact, I read comment after comment (all by men) angrily defending the landlords! The general view seemed to be that it was a big fuss over nothing, that it was up to the women, and that if it was consensual it was OK and we should mind our own business. So many people were defending the landlords that I honestly began to doubt my own judgement. Is it wrong? Am I being over-sensitive and naive?

I agree op it’s revolting. A complete power imbalance and young women who may seriously regret and be traumatised later on. Sad but predictable that thick people will defend it - misogyny is a powerful ideology.

Where did you watch this documentary please?

Is it this one @Hartley99 ???

BBC Three - Rent for Sex: Ellie Undercover

This has been going on in Barking for years and it's absolutely horrible.

Some of the men (or sometimes their wives!) put photos of grubby nasty looking little rooms in the local Facebook group, and make it pretty clear that sex and housework is the 'rent'.

I know someone that does this, he has a flat in central London and rents rooms out for sex..

I've just watched this, and it's official; some men are utterly vile repugnant pigs. Man in his mid-late 30s said 'Oh yeah I want a fuck every second day,' 'or a blow job,' and a middle aged man casually said 'just come and sleep in bed with me, keep your pyjamas on, and then we'll see how it goes. You will come and stay with me. You will.'

Many more men were asking women to send pics of themselves, their breast size, their clothes size etc, and saying they want a fuck for a free room. One revolting speciman wanted the young woman to sleep in a shed in the fucking garden. (He called it a cabin in the garden.)

Upshot is they are breaking the law, and could face up to 7 years in jail. The charges can be anything from inciting prostitution, to sexual deviancy. The ads are on Craigslist apparently.

Sickening that anyone should be backed into a corner and having to consider this.its most definitely not ok and how any man could think this is ok speaks volumes about their character.

Wow this is disgusting! How awful!

Gobsmacked at the fella with the Geordie accent near the end, who is utterly denying that he has done anything wrong. 'Well I just want a fuck in exchange for a free room, so what? I'm not forcing the lasses to come here.'

YOU ARE BREAKING THE LAW, YOU DUMB FUCK-NUT! I hope you get caught -and serve 7 years in JAIL, you pervy piece of shit!

Then at the VERY end, all the landlords featured (around half a dozen,) were questioned afterwards, and denied doing anything wrong - OR they refused to comment. Not one of them expressed shame or contrition, or offered a single apology, for treating young vulnerable women like pieces of meat, prostitutes, and borderline sex slaves.

I am fucking RAGING after watching this!

Tragic thing is, this will not stop, ever. As long as MEN exist.

It’s gross and exploitative. It’s not new, though. It’s been going on for at least couple of hundred years, depressingly. It was pretty common in Victorian slums, for example - women who didn’t have the rent money that week being told they’d be let off paying if they had sex with the rent collector or landlord. Horrible stuff.

Sorry I don't know how to do the mentioned bit.
Not a dig at your comment.
I'd like to have thought we'd come along way since Victorian times but obviously not.

I'm horrified that 10 people who have voted are OK with this...I hope they don't have daughters or sisters who may end up in this situation!

Clearly got a few men on here at the moment. 🙄 God help us all if it's women thinking this shit is OK.

I don't understand how vile men can never see when they're in the wrong. I hope they do jail time.

Your moral compass would have to be truly fucked not to see how wrong these types of scenarios are.

Is this a new programme or has it been shown before? I could be wrong, but it sounds really familiar.

There is nothing more depressing than the comments written by men in the social media comments sections (I'm talking about FB, as that is the only SM I have).
It makes me despair.

My sister read something on there about women not choosing to have children. Many of the men's comments were predictably awful. One wrote 'you're just going to be stuck on your own with a load of cats.'

My sis replied 'don't threaten us with a good time'

As grim as this is, are they actually breaking the law?

@JMSA

The documentary was first shown in 2019.

Very depressing stuff. But have to say, the fact that we clearly all agree that this is horrible just goes to show that 'sex work is work' is just not true.

No one would mind lowering rent in exchange for mowing the lawn or whatever. Sex work (in all its various shapes and forms) is very often exploitative and I wish we all a society would stop glamourising it.

Yes I watched it when it was on originally.
Grim.

It's absolutely disgusting.

I've been pretty sheltered for most of my life: my Dad was a good man, my dp is a decent bloke and I've always had male friends.
It's only the last few years that I've realised how shitty a lot of men are.

Scum like the men in the documentary even tried taking advantage of Ukrainian refugees. There were loads of them advertising spare rooms but making it clear that they were only interested in renting to young women.

Taking advantage of women fleeing war was a new low.

Yes, it's an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Section 52 and Section 53, causing and controlling prostitution.

But the CPS hadn't really thought about it until there were a couple of undercover TV shows that highlighted it (the other was on ITV) which led to the issue being raised in parliament in 2018. Only then did the CPS change it's guidance which now says this:

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/prostitution-and-exploitation-prostitution

The first prosecution was in 2022 and the guy got 12 months in prison:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10800957/Sex-rent-landlord-52-jailed-year-giving-room-woman-sex-him.html

Also, this is included as a "Priority Offence" in the new Online Safety Act 2023. What this means is that sites like Facebook, Gumtree or anywhere else that people might put up these adverts in the UK will, in the future, have to have processes in place that will identify adverts like this.

How they are supposed to do that hasn't been decided yet!

Ofcom are currently coming up with codes of practice which websites will have to follow.

I've not watched the documentary yet OP, but I'm disgusted that there were so many comments supporting the landlord

Sadly, I can't say I'm ever so surprised- there seems to be an increased tolerance (acceptance from some) for porn/ sex work in the mainstream. I'm sure that easier access to porn and the marketing of sites such as onlyfans as more of a 'home business' is serving to normalise sex work.

wtf seriously?