Court Orders West Sussex Letting Agent And Landlord To Pay £4.5k For DSS Discrimination

An estate and letting agents and landlord based in West Sussex has been ordered by a court to pay a woman £4,500 for discriminating against her.

According to housing charity Shelter, the case of Hayley Pearce v Michael Jones & Company and Ms Valerie Quick (2021) is the third one in 12 months where a UK court has declared DSS discrimination to be unlawful.

Landlords and letting agents saying 'no DSS' is essentially telling those claiming benefits that they will not be considered as a tenant, regardless of whether they've historically always paid their rent on time, or have great references.

On Monday 29 March at Worthing County Court, Deputy District Judge Byfield declared by consent that Michael Jones & Company estate agents had unlawfully discriminated against single mum and freelance writer Hayley Pearce, by telling her that ‘people in receipt of benefits would not be acceptable’ to the landlord. 

Because Hayley is a woman, this simple rejection constituted unlawful indirect discrimination on the grounds of sex under the Equality Act 2010.  

According to Shelter, Hayley is 32 and lives in Sussex with her son. She lived in her previous home for just over a year and paid the £995 rent in full, on time every month. She’s always been a reliable tenant and has a very good rental history. 

Back in 2019, her landlord increased her rent to well above the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate, which Hayley couldn’t afford. Her landlord served her a Section 21 ‘no-fault’ eviction notice to leave by the beginning of July 2019, so she had to look for a new home. But it was then that she came up against repeated ‘No DSS’ discrimination.   

Hayley had savings, a home-owning guarantor, and 13 years’ good rental history. She works part-time and receives Universal Credit and Child Benefit. Her annual income is similar to the average in her local region, she was able to pay rent in advance, and had enough money for a rental deposit. But for some local lettings agents, all of this wasn’t enough.   

In May 2019, she started scouring lettings websites for a suitable property.

She phoned Michael Jones & Company to find out about a flat it was advertising for £825 per month. But when she said that part of her income came from benefits, she was told by a (now former) staff member that people in receipt of benefits would not be acceptable to the landlord. 

Hayley’s case against Michael Jones & Company is one of three she has taken on in the last two years, and the only one to reach the stage of a final hearing at court.

The other two settled long before trial, and collectively paid Hayley damages and legal costs of almost £15,000 in total. In one of these two cases, the landlord of the property Hayley wanted to view said she had no idea that her agents were refusing to help people receiving benefits.

But her case against Michael Jones & Company went all the way to the day of trial. By consent, Deputy District Judge Byfield declared that:

"The First and Second defendants unlawfully indirectly discriminated against the claimant on the ground of sex contrary to section 19 and 29 of the Equality Act 2010 when the first defendants former trainee informed the claimant that people in receipt of benefits would not be acceptable to the second defendant."

In addition, Michael Jones & Company and the landlord agreed to pay Hayley damages of £4,500 and her legal fees – as well as their own legal costs for the case, which ran for two years.

Shelter's solicitor Rose Arnall, and barrister Tessa Buchanan at Garden Court Chambers represented Hayley. 

Research by Shelter shows that 41% of female single-adult households renting privately claim housing benefit, compared to just 27% of male single-adult households. This means that women are in some cases 1.5 times more likely to rely on housing benefit than men, so they’re more likely to be excluded by a No DSS criterion.