A London renter was left stunned after they received a very blunt reply from a landlord after requesting to view their property.
The house hunter politely introduced themselves and asked to view a room in a flat share in Walthamstow – but was met with a four-word response from the landlord wanting to know their nationality.
Many thought the question was discriminatory with some even going so far as to call the owner ‘racist’.
However, not everyone thought the question was out of line and defended the landlord’s actions, believing he had good intentions.
The anonymous renter found a double room for rent near Walthamstow centre listed on Spare Room and messaged the poster for more details.
They gave their name and age, said they worked as a hospitality manager and wanted to view the room.
Days later, the person who posted the advertisement replied simply asking: ‘What nationality are you?’
Shocked by the short reply, the renter took to Reddit to share their outrage.
A London renter was left shocked by a landlord’s blunt response after they enquired about a flat share in Walthamstow
Many thought the question was discriminatory with some even going so far as to call the owner ‘racist’. However, not everyone thought the question was out of line (stock image)
‘Seriously, that’s your first question?’ they wrote, prompting dozens of users to slam the landlord.
People wrote: ‘This should be reported. These types of questions are discriminatory,’; ‘That’s disgusting’.
‘Oh my days, it’s like the opposite of ‘how to say you’re racist without actually saying you’re racist’ to basically just stating that you are a flat-out racist’.
Another asked, ‘Isn’t that illegal?’ – to which one person responded, ‘To ask? No. To refuse letting a room to someone because of their nationality? Yes, provided they have the right to rent’.
Others saw no problem with the lister’s query and assumed they were simply carrying out the Right to Rent check, which is legally required in the UK.
‘Although he sounds quite direct, is there any chance it’s linked to the Right to Rent? I always included my nationalities and confirmed right to rent in my initial requests,’ one user pointed out.
‘They have phrased it terribly, but the clunky grammar in the opening message heavily implies that English isn’t a first language (and one that hasn’t been spoken/practised for very long) and they could very well be concerned about Right to Rent,’ a second explained.
‘That’s a fair question,’ a third said and another replied: ‘Why not? I can rent to whom I want’.
However, many remained skeptical of the landlord’s motives.
‘If you want to be direct, then you say: ‘Do you have citizenship or the legal right to remain in the country? Sorry I have to ask as I am legally required to check,’ someone suggested.
‘I feel they could’ve phrased it: ‘Do you have legal right to rent in the UK?’ This just feels a tad loaded to me,’ a user answered.
‘Asking someone what nationality they have is not equivalent to a Right to Rent check. Nationality does not tell you whether someone have the right to rent. Let us not make this into something it clearly is not,’ another added.
In England, it is legally required tenants prove their Right to Rent to their landlord.
British and Irish citizens can do so by providing their passport details, while non-citizens need to prove they have entered the country legally by showing their immigration documents.
If a person has a Right to Rent, it is illegal for landlords to deny them based on race, ethnicity or nationality as well as gender, gender reassignment, disability, sexual orientation, religion or pregnancy or motherhood.
This isn’t the first time a landlord has raised eyebrows. Previously, a homeowner came under fire for advertising five rooms for rent in his home in Cardiff for up to £980 a month each – with a very inconvenient catch.
Previously, a brazen landlord came under fire for advertising rooms for rent in his Cardiff home for up to £980 a month – but tenants have to move out for four weeks each year
Renters looking for a new place to live were shocked to find the potential tenants would have to vacate their room for four weeks a year to make way for the landlord’s visiting family.
The homeowner of the six-bedroom house has priced each room at such a cost that they would collect a total of £4,280 each month from tenants – in an advertisement many have branded ‘insane’.
The listing posted on Spare Room boasted that potential tenants would have the chance to rent a room in a ‘beautifully furnished, single-storey, very large home in a tranquil village’ in Cardiff.
The homeowner is looking to rent five of the six ‘double’ bedrooms in his house charging £980 for the largest, £860 for the two medium-sized spaces and £790 for the remaining two smallest rooms.
However, despite paying close to £1000 per month to rent a room in the house, the listing revealed a major caveat – the tenants must vacate the house when the landlord and his family come to visit.
‘I’m looking to have the rooms liberated for approximately four weeks in the year so that family can stay at major holidays eg Xmas,’ it said.
‘A pro-rated refund will be given for these periods which would be generally no more than one week at a time maximum (with a month’s notice).’
The six-bedroom home is near the north-west suburb of St Mellons, a half an hour drive from Cardiff’s city centre, where the average rent is £1,064 a month.
Renters were up in arms over the ‘insane’ advertisement and were quick to share their outrage.
‘I live five minutes down the road towards Newport and my entire rent is £690 a month for a spacious 2-bed flat. This is some wild pricing,’ one Reddit user said.
‘£980 per month to live in my dated bedroom in Cardiff… oh, and you’ll be required to let me family sleep in your bed for four weeks of the year,’ another joked.
‘This is insane! That price by St Mellon’s, can rent a small flat in that area for the same price and not let a random family crash there every now and again,’ a third replied.
One deemed the deal a ‘rip off’ while someone else dubbed the landlord as ‘greedy’.
‘He can’t spring for a hotel for his family?’ one person asked and another replied: ‘Don’t be silly, he’s only charging £4280 per month, he couldn’t possibly afford that.’
‘That seems like at that cost one could pay the mortgage for the whole house. The requirement to leave as well makes it completely useless given you effectively have to move out for a week and then move back in,’ someone pointed out.
Both mortgage rates and rental costs have skyrocketed in the past 12 months across the UK.
Rents rose 29 per cent since before the start of the pandemic, new research revealed back in March.
While the rate of growth in rental prices has eased during the past year, they are still significantly higher than four years ago, figures from Zoopla show.
The average rent in Britain was £948 a month in January 2020, and has risen to £1,223 today, the property portal says.
Rental inflation for Britain has slowed to 7.8 per cent, down from 11 per cent a year ago.
While that slowdown will provide some relief to tenants, the extent to which rents have risen in the past four years lays bare the extent of the rental crisis in Britain.
Zoopla says the sharp rise in rents during the pandemic helped to push more than half of rental homes above £1,000 a month for the first time, almost double the level five years ago.