Rental woes - discriminatory practices?

[deliwoman1]

Hi everyone! My partner and I are searching for a new home to rent in London. We are both employed and have savings. I'll be going on mat leave in July with full pay for four months, dropping down to stat after that.

We've just effectively been rejected for a flat based on the fact I will be on maternity leave in the future. I didn't specify how long I'd be taking. To be honest, the letting agent wanted to know about mat leave before we were even granted the opportunity to view the place.

I know agents have to prove that we can afford to pay rent, and I understand the need for referencing. But we informed them of the savings that would've covered my mat leave, and apart from that we earned above the threshold required. It seems they didn't want us from the beginning, and it didn't help that my partner is partly self-employed (with tax returns and bank statements).

This feels pretty dispiriting; I don't know how we're supposed to find a home if they're all taking this stance. It also feels a tad discriminatory. I wish I'd bloody lied and said the place was just for me and my partner, which it technically is for the next four months!

I doubt I have any recourse, but there's something that feels slightly off about this. Has anyone else experienced it before?

It's illegal to refuse to rent on the basis of someone being pregnant or on maternity leave as it's a protected characteristic. Do you have his refusal in writing?

www.prestonredman.co.uk/site/news/how-to-avoid-unlawful-discrimination-when-renting-property

It was a major national lettings agency. The agent I dealt with asked about mat leave the second I told her who the property would be for. Then, I was informed that any statutory mat leave wouldn't be counted. I'm entitled to full pay for four months before statutory kicks in anyway, and she didn't even ask how long I planned to have off. I could go back after four months and thus my income wouldn't be affected in the slightest. Besides, none of this has even begun yet!

I think it was a combination of things if I'm honest, but we were discouraged from the beginning. My partner is part-salaried, part self-employed, and I work salaried at two part-time well-paying jobs. They wanted my partner to be able to cover the entirety of the rent (for the whole tenancy) by himself despite that being totally unnecessary. They also wanted savings to be in a savings account, not a current account, which I'd never heard of before!

She would've put the offer forward (prob because she's aware it's discriminatory not to) but insisted we would've failed referencing, and she didn't even mention a guarantor. Very demoralising. We weren't trying to rent somewhere we couldn't actually afford - we're not nuts!

It's more likely that you just don't fit their criteria then, to be fair. It seems more likely it's the instability of your partners income that's the issue if you wouldn't pass referencing.