Rental markets discriminate against men

Stonedpilot · 29-03-2017 07:08AM #1

Was recently looking to change my rental situation and with my budget and the area in question choice is limited to say the least. On daft.ie I was amazed at how many properties say women only. In a situation already limited and unless I get a sex change this discrimination makes it even harder to get somewhere. This to me should not be allowed. If the roles were reversed womens groups be up in arms but because its men this misandry is somehow allowed. Some properties only mention they want a female tenant after you enquire which limits the limited market even more. Others come across this nonsense?. Landlords should not be allowed to be biased based on sex .

The J Stands for Jay · 29-03-2017 07:15AM

Are they assuming your gender?

skankkuvhima · 29-03-2017 07:19AM

I'm afraid the white knights on boards shout down this sort of thing OP, but you are of course correct. Reverse the gender and we would have legislation banning discrimination on gender immediately

skankkuvhima · 29-03-2017 07:20AM

McGaggs wrote: »

Are they assuming your gender?

Good idea, claim you are gender fluid

FTA69 · 29-03-2017 07:24AM

Ha, I remember coming back from England at 21 to start university and being really annoyed that loads of the student properties were women only. I was bored one afternoon and started ringing them and asking them to view the properties and one landlady met me, decided I wasn't a stinking drunken mess and stuck me in a house full of women. I ended up going out with one of them for five years and having a gay old time of it.

RayM · 29-03-2017 07:24AM

Stonedpilot wrote: »

If the roles were reversed womens groups be up in arms but because its men this misandry is somehow allowed.

I've seen plenty of places on daft.ie that specify "Looking for males only". The way the market is at the moment, landlords can afford to be picky.

There are probably more important things to get your knickers in a knot about - like the prices, for example.

Canis Lupus · 29-03-2017 07:26AM

Small price to pay for all the benefits male privilege grants us.

29-03-2017 07:29AM

I tend to prefer female tenants because they look after the house better. Whenever I get in men as tenants, the costs to repair the place after they move out are usually higher than if I had a female tenant. I've also had guys skip out without paying rent but it hasn't happened (yet) with women. I wouldn't mind a mixed group of genders but usually I get individuals looking for places rather than people who already know each other.

It's not discrimination. It's a matter of experience with the rental market. It comes down to costs.

29-03-2017 07:35AM

When I was interviewing people for letting I always had a hierarchy for different things.

When it came to male / female, Female > Male for many reasons that I gathered over time.

pilly · 29-03-2017 07:37AM

I've seen ads that say men only so it goes both ways.

Canis Lupus · 29-03-2017 07:52AM

pilly wrote: »

I've seen ads that say men only so it goes both ways.

Only time I've ever seen that it usually has something like gay friendly household written somewhere else in the advert.

29-03-2017 07:54AM

76544567 wrote:

When it came to male / female, Female > Male for many reasons that I gathered over time.

So it's ok to generalise a gender because of a couple of anecdotal experiences? Would it be ok to do that with women coming out worse off or with people of different races?

Deleted User wrote:

It's not discrimination. It's a matter of experience with the rental market. It comes down to costs.

It's discrimination based on your personal experience. Which, if that's what you want to do then knock yourself out, but just don't claim you aren't discriminating

Canis Lupus wrote:

Small price to pay for all the benefits male privilege grants us.

I will assume (and hope) you are being sarcastic

Your Face · 29-03-2017 07:54AM

I'm outraged because this could potentially affect me.

skankkuvhima · 29-03-2017 08:02AM

pilly wrote: »

I've seen ads that say men only so it goes both ways.

How many say that vs how many say women only?

I just went to daft. I picked the first 10 house shares. 3 say women only, 7 say men or women, 0 say men only.

quadrifoglio verde · 29-03-2017 08:06AM

Women are less open to sharing with men. Probably because we're men. We smell, we're not great at cleaning and you can understand why they might have some concerns if a man wanted to rent in an all girl house.

Men are more open to sharing with women, because they're women. They clean up better, nice to look at and are quite willing to set you up with their single female friends

Grayson · 29-03-2017 08:08AM

OP, are you offended by all the non smoker adverts too?

The J Stands for Jay · 29-03-2017 08:08AM

quadrifoglio verde wrote: »

Women are less open to sharing with men. Probably because we're men

Men are more open to sharing with women, because they're women. They clean up better, nice to look at and are quite willing to set you up with their single female friends

But they hog the bathroom, leave it in a state, never wash their dishes and say putting out the bins is a man's job.

Brego888 · 29-03-2017 08:11AM

In my extensive renting career of over a decade I've found men to be easier to live with, cleaner and less drama than women.

skankkuvhima · 29-03-2017 08:12AM

From the first 50 house shares in Dublin city on daft

4 say men only
15 say women only
31 say men or women

If my maths are correct men have access to 70% of the house shares in Dublin, women have access to 92%

quadrifoglio verde · 29-03-2017 08:12AM

McGaggs wrote: »

But they hog the bathroom, leave it in a state, never wash their dishes and say putting out the bins is a man's job.

I find leaving the seat up helps stop that.
They do make a mean cup of tea in return for putting out bins.
I refuse to do "man" jobs for my feminist friends. I have been known to mow the lawn, test fire alarms, bleed radiators and change bulbs for my non feminist female friends though in return for baked goods and tea

BlinkingLights · 29-03-2017 08:12AM

Is there an exemption under the Equal Status Act, or is this just overlooked discrimination?

skankkuvhima · 29-03-2017 08:14AM

Grayson wrote: »

OP, are you offended by all the non smoker adverts too?

Do you really equate smoking to

gender
marital status
family status
age
race
religion
disability
sexual orientation
membership of the Traveller community

Or are you just being obtuse because a form of discrimination has been pointed out to you that you don't like. Would you be happy if the ads said "whites only"?

29-03-2017 08:15AM

Grayson wrote:

OP, are you offended by all the non smoker adverts too?

What has this got to do with anything?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 29-03-2017 08:15AM

That specific discrimination kinda depends on the situation.

If it's a woman owner/occupier looking for a flatmate/tenant then some women just feel safer with only other women living there. Understandable, but still a bit discriminatory. Problem is, even if she can't say that, she's only going to pick another woman even if she interviews you for the room so there's not really much you can do about it.

If it's a guy looking for a flatmate/tenant and saying women only, creepy as **** - again, though, he might interview you but he's not going to choose you.

If it's a landlord who's not living there then discriminatory straight of the bat. That you can complain about.

Overall, it's a variation of a "dick tax" to quote a friend of mine.

There's others though: try looking for a flat when you're over 40, have a kid or a pet, smoke or work from home.

Grayson · 29-03-2017 08:16AM

BlinkingLights wrote: »

Is there an exemption under the Equal Status Act, or is this just overlooked discrimination?

I don't know. I know that you can't refuse to rent a property to someone based on gender etc but I have no idea if it's the same for finding a roommate.

I also think a lot of people here are mixing the two situations up because some people are referring to renting a whole property and some are talking about finding a roommate.

Grayson · 29-03-2017 08:18AM

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

If it's a guy looking for a flatmate/tenant and saying women only, creepy as **** - again, though, he might interview you but he's not going to choose you.

Do you remember a while back there was a post in the funny houses to let thread where a guy was looking for a female roommate to share a double bed with?

One eyed Jack · 29-03-2017 08:24AM

Stonedpilot wrote: »

Was recently looking to change my rental situation and with my budget and the area in question choice is limited to say the least. On daft.ie I was amazed at how many properties say women only. In a situation already limited and unless I get a sex change this discrimination makes it even harder to get somewhere. This to me should not be allowed. If the roles were reversed

You can't reverse the roles without reversing the stereotypical presumptions about people's behaviour, and before you pull me up on that -

womens groups be up in arms but because its men this misandry is somehow allowed.

You just made a biased presumption based on your own stereotypical impression of people's behaviour. So if you can do it, why do you think nobody else should do it?

Some properties only mention they want a female tenant after you enquire which limits the limited market even more. Others come across this nonsense?. Landlords should not be allowed to be biased based on sex.

Would you be making the same complaint about whom private landlords should and shouldn't be able to rent their private property to, if the roles were reversed?

BlinkingLights · 29-03-2017 08:25AM

quadrifoglio verde wrote: »

Women are less open to sharing with men. Probably because we're men. We smell, we're not great at cleaning and you can understand why they might have some concerns if a man wanted to rent in an all girl house.

Men are more open to sharing with women, because they're women. They clean up better, nice to look at and are quite willing to set you up with their single female friends

You've clearly got a rose tinted glasses version of women! Being a total slob is actually gender neutral. Both genders and probably gender fluid people are 100% capable of being horrible to live with.

I shared with two women and one smelled bad as she used to leave piles of dirty laundry and towels for weeks and didn't shower very often. She worked in a fairly physical job that didn't require much in the way of smelling nice.

Both of them left the bathroom in an absolute state all the time. Hairs in the sink, toothpaste splashed all over the mirror, make up everywhere.

One of them would even just takeoff her makeup with any random hand towel leaving brown stains all over it...At least I hope it was make up.

Then there was the throwing sanitary towels and tampons into the bathroom bin and never emptying it problem.

I lived with two lads and they smelled perfectly acceptable. Showered regularly. Cleaned the bathroom. Did laundry so their rooms actually smelled quite normal and probably even nice.

They'd share all the household chores, actually buy nice stuff specifically to share - beer, biscuits, tea bags etc and actually pleasant to live with.

We even would even cook everyone dinner once in a while.

So it's pot luck in my opinion.

Thelomen Toblackai · 29-03-2017 08:27AM

I've seen ads that say no women and met landlords that say women tenants in sharing situations are much more trouble than men.

Use more water, higher electricity usage with constant washer/dryer usage, hair dryer etc. And more inclined to fight and bicker with other tenants.

I don't think it's a case of anyone being discriminated against in general just different situations and landlords preferring different types of people.

BlinkingLights · 29-03-2017 08:28AM

Think you'll find making sweeping assumptions about someone based on their gender is pretty much the definition of discrimination.

I mean if you were making statements like that about say Irish people in Australia as an Australian landlord, you'd have absolute uproar.

jimgoose · 29-03-2017 08:31AM

quadrifoglio verde wrote: »

Women are less open to sharing with men. Probably because we're men. We smell, we're not great at cleaning and you can understand why they might have some concerns if a man wanted to rent in an all girl house...

Nonsense! In my experience girls in house-rentals are dirty, untidy, lazy little wagons. I myself am immaculately clean and tidy. Apart from the odd Tsar Bomba induced by a gallon of porter followed by an Indian takeaway... :pac:

Rental markets discriminate against men

Comments