For years, “No DSS” and “no children” sat in plenty of rental adverts and agent screening rules. Since 1 May 2026 in England, they are against the law. The Renters’ Rights Act bans landlords and agents from discriminating against people who receive benefits or who have children, and councils can fine you up to £7,000 for each offence. This edition covers what is banned, what you can still do, and how to clean up your adverts and screening before a complaint lands.
What Is Banned
The rule is simple. You must not do anything that makes a person less likely to rent your property, or prevents them from renting it, because they receive benefits or because they have, or might have, children. GOV.UK calls this “rental discrimination”. It covers the whole letting process:
Adverts and listings: “No DSS”, “no benefits”, “no children” and “professionals only” wording aimed at excluding these groups.
Information: withholding details such as availability, vacancy date, size or number of bedrooms.
Viewings: refusing a viewing or only offering unreasonable times.
The decision itself: refusing to let, or offering worse terms.
Three points catch landlords out:
It applies to existing tenants too. If a tenant has a child or starts claiming benefits during the tenancy, you can’t act against them for that reason.
A mistaken belief still counts. If you wrongly assume an applicant has children or is on benefits and treat them worse because of it, that is still discrimination.
You answer for your agent. The rules cover anyone acting on your behalf, including letting agents, referencing services, friends and family. Handing the process to an agent does not move the risk off you.
The ban applies to assured tenancies in England. Social housing and supported accommodation are outside it.
Tenancy, Mortgage and Lease Terms
Any term in a tenancy agreement, mortgage or superior lease that could be used to discriminate in this way is not valid and can’t be enforced. If your buy-to-let mortgage or head lease says “no tenants on benefits” or “no children”, you can’t rely on it as a reason to refuse. One council guide also says landlord insurance conditions barring tenants on benefits become unenforceable when the policy expires, so check with your insurer at renewal.
What You Can Still Do
The ban does not mean you must accept every applicant. You can still:
Run affordability checks, using a consistent income-to-rent test for everyone.
Count benefit income properly. If you apply an income threshold, it has to treat benefit income the same as wages.
Take references, run credit checks and do Right to Rent checks, applied the same way to every applicant.
Ask for a guarantor, if you ask consistently. Asking for one only from applicants on benefits would be discrimination.
Decline an applicant who genuinely cannot afford the rent, or who fails your normal checks, provided the decision rests on the individual and not on benefits or family make-up.
The principle is consistency. Write down your criteria, apply them to every applicant and keep a record of why each decision was made.
The Penalty
GOV.UK states fines of up to £7,000 for each offence. These are civil penalties imposed by the local housing authority. One commercial guide adds that a continuing breach can attract a further £7,000 and a repeat breach within five years a further £7,000, which it puts at a worst case of £28,000. That stacking detail is not on the GOV.UK page I could access, so treat it as unconfirmed.
Penalties go to the council, not to the tenant. A tenant can also pursue other routes, such as a claim under the Equality Act 2010 in some situations, and from 2028 a complaint to the PRS Landlord Ombudsman, which we covered on 8 October.
The same set of changes also tightened how you advertise and take money:
State the rent in the advert. You can’t ask for, encourage or accept offers above the advertised rent.
Only one month’s rent in advance, and only after the tenancy agreement is signed and before it starts.
Penalties for breaching the bidding rules can also reach £7,000. These rules sit alongside the pet and fee rules we covered earlier this month.
What to Do This Week
Search your adverts. Remove “No DSS”, “no benefits”, “no children” and “professionals only” wording from listings, templates and old portal copy.
Review your application form and screening criteria. Check there is no tick box or scoring that treats benefits or children differently.
Write down your affordability test and apply the same threshold to every applicant.
Brief your agent in writing. Ask them to confirm their own process, and keep their reply.
Check your mortgage, head lease and insurance terms. Know which clauses you can no longer rely on.
Keep decision records. A short note of why an applicant was accepted or declined is your best defense if someone complains.
Train anyone who answers enquiries. One careless reply from a relative or a part-time helper can still be your problem.
Bottom Line
This is one of the easiest rules to follow and one of the easiest to break by accident, because the risk sits in old habits and old templates. You are still free to choose a tenant who can afford the rent and passes your checks. What you can’t do is use benefits or children as the filter. Fix your wording, apply one test to everyone and keep records, and the ban costs you very little.
Know a landlord or agent still using “No DSS” in their adverts? Forward this on before the council finds it first.
Next edition: Thursday 29 October, with another essential compliance update for UK landlords.
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