No Children, Thanks.

Did you know some people deliberately break the law? Yep, they utter those words 'sorry, no kids at my property'. Sounds innocent enough, but it is contrary to the Human Rights Act 1993 Section 21 (1) (l). Doing so could result in prosecution and damaged awarded.

From time to time clients instruct us that they don't want children at their properties. That's nice, but no dice. We won't follow unlawful instructions. Most of our clients are pleased to learn we are protecting them from their own ignorance of the law. Some decide to look for another property manager who will not allow children in their properties. To those I say 'Good luck!'. I know there are some property managers who will attempt to defend themselves with 'I was just acting on my clients instructions'. It is no defense. And worse, they did not educate their client, so both are likely targets for prosecution.

If you don't want children in your property, don't buy property that would suit them. A three bedroom home in the suburbs is going to attract families. If you don't like that, then get something else, perhaps a hostel as they have more power to discriminate. Frankly, I'd prefer to deal with a family with a whole bunch of kids than the young or disenfranchised.

So what can you discriminate on?
Number of occupants. You can limit the number of people living in the house. A rule of thumb is one person per bedroom. Don't try to say only 2 people in a 4 bedroom house, you won't succeed if challenged.
Ability to pay. If they can't afford it, you don't need to take them. This is different from being unemployed. Our rule of thumb is 1/3 of income is the maximum spend on housing.
Smokers. Yep you don't need to take them.
Pets. These aren't children, no matter how much they are a part of the family. Wolf children are a grey area. If you encounter any, let me know how you go.

Generally speaking, take the best applicant on merit. And that's a topic for another blog.