Fury at Landlord’s Invasive Questions to Potential Tenant: ‘Awful’

A landlord’s invasive line of questioning toward a potential tenant has sparked public outrage online.

Andreas Suurhans, 24, recently shared a screenshot to Reddit of a message he received after enquiring about a “ridiculously cheap” flat in Canterbury, U.K.

The screenshot showed a series of questions ranging from his nationality, lifestyle, and even sexual orientation.

He told Newsweek: “I was quite taken aback by the response.”

The post which has 4,400 upvotes, underscores a growing concern about the boundaries of personal privacy in the rental market.

The U.K.’s Equality Act 2010 outlines ‘Protected characteristics’ as criteria by which individuals cannot be discriminated against. A few of these characteristics include:

• Disability
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Sexual orientation
• Race

The U.K.’s National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) states that unfairly choosing not to rent to someone with protected characteristics could lead to a legal challenge.

The post, titled “Inquired about renting a place with my friend and landlord responded with this,” shows a lengthy email from the landlord.

The homeowner makes it clear that Suurhans must respond to the questions before a viewing is arranged.

An extract from the email read: “We will only consider male-female couples. If this isn’t the case with you, then I’m afraid we couldn’t take this any further.”

The landlord said he lives abroad and the current tenants are “very busy people.”

“Let’s see first whether you would be suitable prospective tenants for us, before arranging any viewing,” the email said.

Suurhans, a student, said: “What surprised me most (aside from the blatant homophobia) was how invasive the questions were. I understand being selective about tenants but asking for things like nationality, interests, and such is a bit too far.

“You’re my landlord, not my friend. Reasonable questions would have been neutral ones such as “Do you smoke?” or “Do you have any pets?” etc. Plus, the nationality one just reeks of racism.”

Surrhans, who is from Estonia, said: “The flat in question seemed like a good choice.”

He points out it was close to the city center and only £400 (about $500) per month for the whole flat. He hoped to share it with his friend for his final year of university but they have no intentions of moving there now.

He told Newsweek: “I just thought that it’s completely inappropriate to conduct a letting procedure in this way. As a landlord you take on risks with tenants. However, that’s an inevitability of renting out property.

“If you are in a position to have a second or third property (or more) you are in a position of power and asking a potential tenant questions like this is insulting.

“Renting is already hard and having landlords like this makes the whole ordeal a nightmare and it’s quite dismal, to be honest. “

So far, the post shared on March 26 has received 375 comments.

One user responded: “Looking for someone who doesn’t know their rights as a tenant I suppose.”

“If this isn’t a scam he did you a favor by revealing how unpleasant he would be dealing with as a landlord. We recently moved to get away from our jerk of a landlord,” said another.

A third commenter said: “I’m just gonna [state] the obvious here, I don’t care how nice that place is do not rent from that person.”

“Awful. Also, I would advise never renting directly. Partly because you have fewer legal protections than going through an agent, partly because (as evidenced here) you’re not going to get a fast response when things need fixing,” said a fourth user.

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