Anonymous | Contributing Writer
Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared in its full, unedited form as an open letter at increature.com, and has been sent by the authors to a number of relevant government authorities. With their permission, it has been edited here for length and format.
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We are two final year university students who live in Dublin and wish to express our profound discontent with some of the situations in which we found ourselves during our search for housing in the Irish capital, and particularly the clear discrimination against students which is common practice in the rental market.
Between June and September, we were actively looking for private accommodation in Dublin. We sent several hundreds of emails, made hundreds of phone calls, went to numerous viewings and spent a lot of time, money and energy looking for a place. The house hunt was a very stressful experience which resulted in us sacrificing a large part of our summer, spare time after work, family time and the possibility to advance with college work (readings, dissertation, etc.)
We finally found a place two weeks before the start of the academic year, a place that we are not entirely satisfied with, but had to take for lack of other offers. We are somewhat relieved that we were lucky enough to find something, as we are very aware that many students were not as lucky and are therefore forced to commute, live in hostels or even take a year out of college.
Many students were not as lucky and are therefore forced to commute, live in hostels or even take a year out of college.
One of us is a final year Student in the faculty of arts and humanities who worked the whole summer in a well-respected office in Dublin and will continue to work part-time throughout the academic year. The other is a final year Political Science and Geography student who works during the summer months and is financially supported by her father who works in one of the European Institutions in Brussels. Both of us have letters of references from all our previous landlords stating we are responsible tenants, that the rent and all utility bills have always been paid on time and that we left our previous flats in good condition. Furthermore, we both have good work references from well-respected institutions.
Having such documents, one must wonder how it took us three months to find a mediocre residence.
To us, the answer is very simple. The housing crisis meant that it was hard for everyone to find a place in Dublin due to the fact that this year there was a 43% drop in supply in the rental market and a 7.5% increase in rental prices. But students, in particular, have a clear disadvantage and are discriminated against.
We knew the definition of the word “discrimination,” but during our house hunt we learned what it means to be discriminated against.
Many housing ads online clearly state “no students” or “young professionals only.” Many times, when we called or sent an email asking for a viewing, the agent or the advertiser simply explained to us that we had no chance to be considered because we were students and we were simply wasting our time trying. Many times, we were told that the landlord or landlady would just not accept any students. Many times, the agent or advertiser was simply rude or condescending.
We do understand that the real estate agencies were under tremendous pressure, as they had to deal with this huge demand for housing. But it does not in anyway justify being rude and universally excluding students. It is extremely frustrating when the whole day, phone call after phone call, you are being rejected just because your current occupation is “student”. We knew the definition of the word “discrimination,” but during our house hunt we learned what it means to be discriminated against.
The Equal Status Act of 2000 promotes equality and prohibits certain forms of discrimination. It also applies to lettings. In an article that is part of a Ten Step Law series written by Roddy Tyrrell, a Board Member of the Property Registration Authority it clearly says that:
”When you are satisfied with your prospective tenant’s ability to pay their rent it is time to interview them. Be careful with the questions you ask as equality law prohibits you from refusing to offer accommodation or from terminating a tenancy on any of the following nine grounds: gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, disability, race, membership of the traveller community. You should base your decisions on the merits of the prospective tenants.”
In our experience, our requests for accommodation or viewings were often declined before we even had the chance to prove our ability to pay rent. All this, on the grounds that we are students. We strongly believe that this is unfair.
Students who have, in the past, rented accommodation and can provide good references should be treated the same as everyone else.
It is true that the Equal Status Act of 2000 does not state that discrimination on the bases that someone being a student is illegal. However, we believe that being a student is, in the majority of cases, closely related to age. The Equal Status Act states that “Treating a person who has not attained the age of 18 years less favourably or more favourably than another, whatever that other person’s age, shall not be regarded as discrimination on the age ground.”
This means that all people over the age of 18 should be equally treated. They should not be put at a disadvantage because they are “younger” than young professionals who are also looking for accommodation. Having guarantors and working part-time and during the summers, we believe that we are as able as ‘young professionals’ to pay rent and all the utility bills and that we should not be discriminated just because we are slightly younger and because we are studying.
Tenants should be chosen based on their merits and references – and if discriminated against, discriminated against based on their actions, not their occupation.
Universities should be more active in assisting students in their housing hunt and the government should work to ensure equality of treatment.
Furthermore, in our experience some landlords were offering a place on the condition that we pay double the deposit, just because we are students. We understand that some landlords have had bad experiences when renting to students. It is true that some young adults are inconsiderate of the premises they are renting: causing damage, disturbing the neighbors or being unreliable. However, this is clearly not the case with all students, and landlords can have bad experiences with all sorts of different people, which is why many landlords now use companies like this bay management group to help them with their rental properties and deal with their tenants (student or not). Once again: students who have, in the past, rented accommodation and can provide good references should be treated the same as everyone else.
There is a serious need for regulation in the rental market. Universities should be more active in assisting students in their housing hunt and the government should work to ensure equality of treatment.
We are openly complaining because we believe that it is utterly unfair that we expect to pay the same amount for the same places as anyone else, and yet we are being openly discriminated against and are forced to either pay an outrageous amount for rent or take the worst places.
We demand more students accommodation, and we demand a stop to the open discrimination that students face in the rental market.
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Photo by William Murphy at https://www.flickr.com/people/80824546@N00
