Flat adverts that may be breaking the law

danielanthony

danielanthony

danielanthony

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18588612

"To let" advertisements that specify a particular race or religion are visible in newsagents windows in many areas of London. But are they breaking the law?

I was a bit surprised when I saw this but it got me thinking. Part of me thinks that if I was sharing my home with a flatmate I would like to have as much in common with them as possible. But on the other hand, an advert would cause outrage if the criteria was "white English only".

Surely this also feeds into the debate of how ethnicities like to stick together e.g. African or Chinese area's of certain towns/cities. I thought it was all about integration nowadays and so living seperate lives doesn't exactly promote this. To me, being simplistic, this racial segrigation seems a bit like voluntary apartheid!
 
seems reasonable to me, its either state it on the add or I waste a phone call only to be told "its gone" (because I dont sound asian or what ever)

I'd bet what they really want is someone from the same country that speaks the same language.. thats not going to moan about the smell of the cooking or is going to offend their customs
 
While part of me can understand it for the reasons stated above.

Would it be considered socially acceptable for a white person to say "No Indians, I don't like to smell Indian food", "No Muslims, I don't want halal meat in my house" or simply "no blacks, I don't like R&B/RAP" - as they don't know for sure if the English person will be stereotypically English, as much as a white person would have no idea if the black person was.

It's all or nothing if we did.

But personally - I don't think anybody should have the right to turn anybody else away based on ethnicity or creed.

If you want to pick who you want to live with, don't publicly advertise.

No doubt this thread will get high-jacked by racists shortly.
 
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I was under the impression we lived in a free society, and part of that would include having the right to specify or restrict your potential tenants based on ethnicity, surely.

It might be morally repugnant to do so, but that doesn't mean it should be illegal, does it?
 
Even if you ban people from making advertisements like this you can't stop them from then going on to chose tenants that conform to their ideals at a later time. If I had a room / property to let I would not just offer it to the first person that called me, I would want to meet them to ensure that I get on with them before making any decision.
 
Conscript said:
I was under the impression we lived in a free society, and part of that would include having the right to specify or restrict your potential tenants based on ethnicity, surely.

It might be morally repugnant to do so, but that doesn't mean it should be illegal, does it?
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So would it be acceptable for a landlord to say "no blacks"?.

If it's OK for a landlord, what about a pub - in which the owner lives in the building?.

While people are free to make personal choices, I don't think it should apply for business transactions (which is what they are in this case).

Nodiggidy123 said:
on another note what about discrimination due to age?

so many reasonably priced properties around here have a over 55's policy.
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That should also be illegal imho.

If they want to have low noise rules, have them & kick people out who break it.
 
Nodiggidy123 said:
on another note what about discrimination due to age?

so many reasonably priced properties around here have a over 55's policy.
Click to expand...

It's no different to that really.

We're calling it racism, but I think it's more often down to landlords specifying an ethnicity due to their familiarity with that culture.
 
This was frowned upon when I was at university when people were applying for house shares / advertising a room. The university office would not allow any discrimatory remarks such as asians only... but they did allow the advert to be in a different language.
 
elmarko1234 said:
If it's OK for a landlord, what about a pub - in which the owner lives in the building?
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That's slightly different, as a pub is a place of business, whereas a flat/house isn't (regardless of the fact that you have to make an initial "business transaction" in order to live there). Additionally, pub owners don't generally let any members of the public into their actual living space, regardless of race/age/etc.

That aside - while I can't help but feel that there would be a huge outrage if these adverts said "white only" or "straight only", I see it in the same way as shares asking for women only, or age related (e.g. retirement properties). This is someone that you have to share your personal space with and that you'll be stuck with for potentially a long time period; as edscdk and Fire_fly already said, it's either this, or simply tell them someone else already took it after meeting them, so it saves wasting time.
 
I don't see the problem. It's their house, they can rent it to whoever they want.

elmarko1234 said:
So would it be acceptable for a landlord to say "no blacks"?.
If it's OK for a landlord, what about a pub - in which the owner lives in the building?.
While people are free to make personal choices, I don't think it should apply for business transactions (which is what they are in this case).
That should also be illegal imho.
If they want to have low noise rules, have them & kick people out who break it.
Click to expand...

Same deal. Why would you want to support a landlord that didn't like you for your skin colour?
 
elmarko1234 said:
So would it be acceptable for a landlord to say "no blacks"?.

If it's OK for a landlord, what about a pub - in which the owner lives in the building?.

While people are free to make personal choices, I don't think it should apply for business transactions (which is what they are in this case).

That should also be illegal imho.

If they want to have low noise rules, have them & kick people out who break it.
Click to expand...

The thing is, they haven't said "no blacks", they've specified "Bangladeshi", etc. I think this is less being racist, more restricting applicants to those the landlord shares a familiarity with. Not much different to putting an advert out for a room share for "students only", they've just used a cultural/national identifier instead.

For the record, I agree, I think it's unacceptable socially. But legally, I'm not sure what the standpoint is. A landlord is expressing his right to specify whom his occupants are; you are free to take your business elsewhere, and view said landlord as you will.
 
I just think it's a bit of a shame that people don't want to mix with other cultures.

I lived in Holland for a few years when I was about 12, I didn't speak Dutch when I arrived but made Dutch friends and learnt to speak the language. My parents hung out with other British people from work and didn't really speak the language or have any Dutch friends. I feel I got a lot more out of the experience then they did.
 
While it does seem wrong or illegal just think about it, it if says Polish,gay or whatever only, then at least you know in advance so you don ‘t waste your time viewing places just to be told few days later "sorry, we can't rent it to you".
 
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