The Government will be pressing landlords, agents and online portals to stop publishing rental adverts that exclude tenants who claim benefits. Shelter Campaign The crackdown comes as a result of housing charity Shelter’s Stop DSS Discrimination Campaign aimed at ensuring that all prospective tenants are treated equally and fairly when looking for rented accommodation. Actions […]

The Government will be pressing landlords, agents and online portals to stop publishing rental adverts that exclude tenants who claim benefits.
Shelter Campaign
The crackdown comes as a result of housing charity Shelter’s Stop DSS Discrimination Campaign aimed at ensuring that all prospective tenants are treated equally and fairly when looking for rented accommodation. Actions include naming and shaming agents who insist on placing a blanket ban on all their ads. Clearly, careful management of rental accommodation is essential, as is the property inventory software needed to facilitate the job. Online property portal Zoopla has already announced that it is removing the ‘No DSS’ wording on rental advertisements. This means that landlords no longer have the option to bar potential tenants who receive benefits from applying. Right move has also been supporting the changes, by joining Zoopla in sending notices to agents to discourage them from placing adverts that ban tenants on benefits.

Moving for change
David Cox, the chief executive of the Association of Residential L...