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Rules on discrimination: Housing benefit / DSS lodgers

SpareRoom does not allow those advertising rooms to screen out lodgers who receive benefits or to reference this in their ads e.g. “No DSS applicants”, or similar. 

This is because, in July 2020, a court ruling determined that blanket bans against renting to anyone in receipt of housing benefit were unlawful and people with disabilities were being unfairly and disproportionately disadvantaged. 

The rulings don't mean you can't choose who you want to let to, but they do mean that you can no longer advertise rooms as automatically unavailable to people in receipt of benefits.

As a live-in landlord, the rules are a little different. The court rulings don't mean you can't decide who you share your home with – in fact, live-in landlords enjoy far more legal flexibility than any other type of landlord or advertiser – but in light of these rulings, we have removed references to housing benefit restrictions from all ads on the site to keep things fair.

We'd always encourage people to consider every applicant on their individual merits and on a case-by-case basis, but the important thing to remember is that you still have complete control over who you invite to share your home.

It may be that you are restricted from accepting housing benefit tenants under the terms of your mortgage or insurance. In such cases, we'd simply ask that you communicate any restrictions to the enquirer at the point of contact, rather than in your ad.