Why do landlords refuse tenants who need to childmind from home?

[Bangonthedoor]

Hi everyone!

Im writing on behalf of a very desperate friend.

My friend lives with her husband and two young children. Her husband is a self employed painter/decorator and my friend is a self employed childminder. They privately rent.

A month ago, they were given notice to leave their privately rented property as the landlord wants to sell. They are having immense difficulty finding a rental 2-3 bedroom house where the landlord is ok with her being a childminder! Every house they have viewed has been a ‘no’ because my friend will be having a handful of children in the house each day and running her business from there. They now only have a very short amount of time to find somewhere!

I am asking if there are any landlords here that will be able to provide an answer as to why (other than the potential mess and finger marks on the walls) and if there is anything at all that could be said or agreed to change a landlords mind. Are there any loop holes?

Thank you for reading!

The childminder has to have their own insurance to cover injuries to peoplr visiting the house and damage to property ordinary house insurance do doesnt cover it even if its your own house.

That's true, but it's more complex in a tenant / landlord situation - most landlord policies would be voided by a tenant running a business from home, even if the tenant had insurance for their business.

Insurance is a huge issue.

But its not generally counted as running a business from home for example council tax doesnt count it and restrictive covernants normally dont apply.

You’re not usually allowed to run a business, lease terms might prevent it, if it is a leasehold. The landlord might also need a different and more expensive building insurance. And also, I’d say it’s a given that there will be damages to the property (I only have one toddler and my flat looks nothing like it did when there only were two adults living in it). Basically the landlord would need to accept higher running costs and higher renovation costs at the end. Plus potentially legal problems if they break the lease. Unfortunately just not worth it.

That’s interesting. As a landlord I wouldn’t have known childminding didn’t count as a business in that sense. I suspect that it would still count for insurance though, and couldn’t take the risk of it voiding my policy. So if a tenant wanted to childmind I’d need the insurance company to confirm that’s ok, which again is extra hassle and admin time for me, so it’s not an attractive option really.

There are many ways to run a business from home without your LL finding out abut it. However when the business is something as visible as child minding many LLs are going to say no. Apart from all the reasons PP up-thread have mentioned (insurance, extra wear and tear, legal) there is a real possibility of complaints from neighbours re noise and parking issues at pickup and drop off times. The suggestion of your wife to work as a nanny (or say that she does) would sit better as it takes the childminding aspect away from the home.

In theory the new legislation makes it an offence for LL/agents to discriminate against tenants with children. However I have seen postings on LL forums where this is discussed. If a LL has 20 couples apply for a rental and some of them are child free couples with stable jobs then all the LL has to say is the decision was made on affordability grounds. It would be very difficult to prove otherwise.

Insurance is the biggest, next on the line would be getting noise complaints

I’m a landlord and I would never allow this. As PPs have said, liability and insurance are the major factors. Also, I would then be fending off endless complaints rom neighbours being blocked in by people double parking and dropping off their kids. Plus the extra noise from inside the property and the multiple early morning drop offs. Neighbours who I would want to keep on side.

Well if a cleaner injures themself or a child who is unsured to pay out?

Huge amounts of wear and tear and I’d never inflict the noise on the neighbours not to mention all the parking and people traffic at drop off and pick up.