25th
Mar 2019
Zoopla has now banned agents and landlords from displaying any semblance of wording in adverts that ‘blanket bans against tenants in receipt of housing-related benefits’; it will no longer allow ‘No DSS’ wording.
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Zoopla has taken its stance after the government announced there would be a clampdown on agents ad landlords uploading ‘no DSS’ adverts that discriminate against prospective tenants claiming housing benefit.
Approximately one in five UK renters are housing benefit claimants and recent research claims that 20%of landlords advertising their properties on Zoopla included ‘no DSS’ in their adverts.
According to Shelter and the National Housing Federation, 8,710 out of 86,000 adverts on the Zoopla website included 'no DSS' in their listings.
The MHCLG, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said that nearly 50% of landlords will not consider letting their properties out to housing benefit claimants.
Zoopla, following suggestions from two trade associations, will now be taking further measures to ensure that there will be no further property listings discriminating against benefit claimants.
Charlie Bryant, Managing Director of Zoopla, commented: “We fully support the recommendations of the NLA and the RLA, which oppose blanket bans against tenants in receipt of housing-related benefits, and are pleased to be taking action which clarifies this position.
“All tenants who are looking to rent a property deserve the chance to be fully assessed for their suitability and matched to a home that suits both their and the landlord’s circumstances.
Additional measures that Zoopla will undertake over the next month will be changing its Member Terms and Conditions to ban the inclusion of “No DSS” restrictions on the website, and the removal of “No DSS” references from existing adverts.
Bryant continued: “We proactively sought the views of our largest lettings-focused agents to ensure the above measures were undertaken on a collaborative basis and received significant support in respect of our proposed additional measures.”
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