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Mayor tightens standards for rentals
The council is expanding a scheme designed to protect tenants from rogue landlords across East Bristol.
Mayor George Ferguson pushed through the plan for the extension of “discretionary licensing”, which upholds basic standards, at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The move comes as a tenants’ rights campaign group claims to have uncovered discrimination at a Bristol estate agent towards tenants relying on housing benefit.
A pilot for discretionary licensing, already in place in Stapleton Road, will now be rolled out to St George West and Eastville.
The new rules, brought in under the 2004 Housing Act, will require landlords of some privately rented accommodation to pay to licence their properties under certain conditions.
The expansion of the scheme comes as local campaign group Acorn enters its next phase in persuading landlords and letting agents to sign up to their Ethical Lettings Charter.
The charter, which was given official endorsement by the council last year, commits agents and landlords to one of three levels of minimum standards – from Bronze to Gold – which include guarantees about security, transparency, low costs and quality of property.
Acorn have just completed conducting initial “mystery shopper” surveys with letting agents around the city to gauge their standards.
The surveys have led to a Taylors branch in Bedminster being labelled discriminatory for its attitudes towards potential tenants who rely on housing benefit.
An Acorn surveyor was allegedly told by staff at the North Street office that landlords preferred “doctors and lawyers” over benefits claimants, or “people on the dole”.
A petition has now been started calling on the agent’s manger to address the discrimination and sign up to the Ethical Lettings Charter.
“It’s quite worrying, especially with people being priced out of areas like Bedminster already,” Acorn organiser Nick Ballard said.
“While we understand that it is down to the landlord who they rent to, when lettings agents like this are paying such an important role they do have a degree of influence over landlords; it all has a knock-on effect.”
Bristol24/7 contacted Taylors’ Bedminster office for a response, but received no reply.
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