Yet another national housing policy win for ACORN
With Labour’s Renters Rights Bill in parliament, ACORN members voted on 5 priority areas to push for improvements through parliament.
One of these areas was to outlaw the practice of landlords requiring tenants to pay multiple months rent in advance in order to secure a tenancy. The bill already made significant moves to penalise landlords and agencies who refuse outright to rent to tenants who receive benefits, but being able to charge a big sum at the start of a tenancy effectively bars these people anyway.
ACORN spoke about the issue to the public bill committee. We presented evidence we collected by surveying our members. Our research found that people claiming benefits were 3 times more likely to be asked for a year's rent in advance than those who weren't - a clear indication that this practice was being used to discriminate against claimants.
ACORN did a write to your MP action on the issue asking MPs to sign on to an amendment put down by Alex Sobel, and used meetings with MPs to ask for their support.
In January the government introduced its own amendment outlawing asking for more than 1 month's rent at the start of a tenancy!