housing benefit

NO DSS notices now “unlawful” claims Shelter following landmark case

Letting agents who try to screen out applicants for rented properties who are on benefits may now be breaking the law, it has been claimed. This follows legal action brought by Birmingham tenant Rosie Keogh with the help of housing charity Shelter against a lettings agency after she claimed to have been rejected because part of her rent was to be paid by housing benefit. “You feel like a second-class citizen,” she told the BBC. “I felt as a housing benefit claimant I was somehow not be trusted with paying my rent on time.” Rosie (pictured, left) says she hopes the case will stop the common NO DSS signs seen in many rental ads by setting a precedent making the “No DSS rule unlawful [which] will then open up the market so everyone can participate in it,” she said. The Moseley-based part-time cleaner and former para-legal secretary had a eleven-year track record of paying her rent on time before encountering problems in 2016 when she applied to rent a property marketed by lettings firm Nicholas George. She claimed that, because 60% of people on housing benefit are women, and that 95% of single parents are women, the agent’s actions discriminated…