Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello,

A chap at work is currently looking to rent a property with a flatmate (male friend) through a well-known chain of letting agents.

They have submitted their request pending credit checks, etc and are waiting to hear back.

Today he recieved a call at work which he hoped to be the confirmation that the let had been granted.

Instead the agent said they were phoning to find out if he and his male friend were a couple.

Firstly, what is the likely reason behind the question, and is either relationship status or sexuality (or the combination of both) something that the let can be decided on?

I expect it's because there's the potential for a breakup and one person moving out, leaving them down a tenant. I'd be astonished if it'd be a legitimate reason for refusing them though.

I assume it has to have at least some baghdsrting on their chance of getting the let, though, as otherwise they'd not have placed the call to find out.

Unfortunately I think he was too shocked, perhaps embarrassed to have asked the later obvious 'why is that important in terms of whether we get the let'.

They're still waiting on the decision, but I think he's a quite annoyed and upset about it.

The landlord can't legally refuse to let because they're in the gays. Covered by the equalities act.

Probably can discriminate based on relationship/marital status but not on the sexuality of same.

What has that got to do with anything? Credit check OK but this is bullshit.

You friend should call back and say that they are a couple and that their lawyers will be in touch!

I would think this, too.

I'm pretty sure that would be no more likely to happy if they weren't a couple though. Circumstances change.

Really bizarre question really. So long as they pay the rent, it makes no odds.

In a sort of similar note a couple of years back a (now-)ex and I had booked flights to Majorca and had chosen not to pay to book specific seats at the time because fuck being nickel-and-dimed to death by grasping pricks. I got a phone call from the airline a few weeks before the flight noting that I really should pay to book my seats. I asked the guy on the phone what exactly were the repercussions if I didn't and, having presumably noticed that our surnames weren't the same, his response was to basically say that if there were any married couples on the flight who also hadn't booked seats then of course they'd get preference so the two of us were risking not being able to sit together on the flight. I just about choked on my own rage at the idea that somehow my relationship wasn't valid enough to qualify us in the eyes of the fucking seating policy of some asshole airline and that I should in fact pay them some money so that we'd be accorded equality in their eyes with people who were married. I had to give him some kind of polite, if icy, brush off and get off the phone ASAP because I knew if I started ranting it wouldn't end well.

Fly BA. Only BA. I would pay extra to not sit near MrsA on a flight.

I think this is a simple credit check requirement. A credit search with a financial association (typically a partner) is a different proposition than two individuals that happen to live in the same place. Such a linked search will consider both applicant's credit score to judge their combined risk, but you'd only really do this if the other person was their partner. It's probably more of a positive reflection of changing times that they'd think to ask this question, in much the same way they'd have previously only asked a male and female applicants if they were also a couple. I bet that's it.

Pfft, coming in here with your sensible answer.

Checking to see if they're rent boys.

I'm pretty certain that this was not the case as they'd been credit checked by the agency the previous week and had passed and we're just awaiting final tenant decision by the landlord.

Anyway, the outcome is that they've been turned down.

Could they have meant that the computer just naturally seats same-surname people close without booked seats because of alphabetical order or the assumption of family but has no way of detetmining couples on the seat allocation if the names differ?