Property Advertisement Equality Guidelines
A. Obligations under the Equal Status Acts
2000-2015
Discrimination
in the provision of accommodation services is prohibited by the Equal Status
Acts 2000 – 2015 (“the ESA”).
person (this includes private persons, landlords, estate agents, and property
agents) shall not publish or, display or cause to be published or displayed an
advertisement which indicates an intention to engage in discrimination, or
might reasonably be understood as indicating such an intention.
Both
advertisers and property agents can be liable for discriminatory
advertisements, on the instructions of property owners and/or landlords.
In the
context of the provision of accommodation, and services and amenities relating
to accommodation, there are ten protected grounds, these are:
The Gender ground: You
are entitled to equal treatment whether you are a man, a woman or a transgender
person.
The Civil Status ground: You
are entitled to equal treatment whether you are single, married, separated,
divorced, widowed, in a civil partnership or previously in a civil partnership.
The Family Status ground: You
are entitled to equal treatment whether you are pregnant, a parent of a child
under 18 years, or the resident primary carer or parent of a person with a
disability, or a person without family status.
The Sexual Orientation ground: You are entitled to equal
treatment whether you are gay, lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual.
The Religion ground: You
are entitled to equal treatment no matter what your religious beliefs are or
even if you don’t hold any religious beliefs.
The Age ground: You
are entitled to equal treatment if you are any age over 18. (The age ground
only applies to young people under 18 if they hold a driver’s licence and are buying
car insurance.)
The Disability ground: You
are entitled to equal treatment if you have a disability, for example,
physical, intellectual, learning, cognitive or emotional. Disability could also
mean that you suffer from a particular medical condition. Accommodation
providers are under an obligation to provide reasonable accommodation to
persons with disabilities.
The Race ground: You
are entitled to equal treatment no matter what your race, skin colour,
nationality or ethnic origin is.
The Traveller Community ground: You
are entitled to equal treatment if you are a member of the Traveller community
and share the traditions and culture of Travellers in Ireland.
The
Housing Assistance ground: You are entitled to equal treatment if
you are in receipt of rent supplement, housing assistance payments, or any
other social welfare payments.
B. Types of discrimination prohibited under
the ESA
Direct
and indirect discrimination are prohibited under the ESA. Discrimination by
association, and by imputation are also unlawful under the ESA.
Direct discrimination
occurs where a person is treated less favourably than another person would be
treated in a comparable situation on any of the above stated protected grounds.
Indirect discrimination
occurs where an apparently neutral provision puts a person who is protected by
any of the above stated protected grounds at a particular disadvantage compared
with other persons, unless the provision is objectively justified by a
legitimate aim and the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and
necessary.
Discrimination by association
occurs where a person is associated with another person (who falls under one of
the above protected grounds) and is treated by virtue of that association less
favourably than a person who is not so
associated is, or would be treated in a comparable situation.
Discrimination by imputation
occurs where a person is treated less favourably than another person would be
treated in a comparable situation where on one of the above protected grounds
are imputed on them.
C. Exceptions under the ESA
Not all forms of different treatment will
amount to discriminatory treatment under the ESA:
Difference in treatment in the context of
the rent or sale of private property will not be deemed unlawful in the
following situations:
- · disposal of any such estate or interest,
or any provision of accommodation or of any service or amenity relating to
accommodation, which is not available to the public generally or a section of
the public. - ·
Property disposed of is part (other than
a separate, or self-contained part) of the home, i.e. a room or part of a private home. - ·
Where the difference in treatment is
required by enactment, or law. - ·
Refusing accommodation, or services or
amenities relating to accommodation which would lead a reasonable individual
having responsibility, knowledge and experience of the person to the belief on
grounds, other than on discriminatory grounds, that the provision of
said accommodation or service would produce a substantial risk of criminal or
disorderly conduct or behaviour or damage to the property. - ·
Multiple
grounds: Premises or, accommodation that is
reserved for a particular category of persons for a religious purpose or as a
refuge, nursing home, retirement, or similar purpose. Refusal to provide
accommodation to persons who fall outside that category will not constitute
discrimination. - ·
Gender
ground:
Where embarrassment or infringement of privacy can reasonably be
expected to result from the presence of a person of another gender; - ·
Housing
assistance ground: the
person providing accommodation is entitled to make it a condition of the
provision of that accommodation that rent supplement is paid directly to that
person.
Positive obligations:
·
Preferential treatment or, the taking of
positive measures which are bona fide intended
to:
o Promote
equality of opportunity for persons who are, in relation to other persons
disadvantaged or who have been or are likely to be unable to avail themselves
of the same opportunity, or
o Cater
for the special needs of persons, or a category of persons, who because of
their circumstances, may require facilities, arrangements, or services or
assistance not required by other persons, who do not have those special needs.
·
Accommodation provider may impose or
maintain a reasonable preferential fee, charge, in respect of persons together
with their children, married couples, person in specific age group or person
with a disability.
D. Identifying Discriminatory Advertisements
An advertisement will be deemed to be
discriminatory for the purposes of the ESA where it indicates an intention,
or might reasonably indicate an intention to discriminate for the
purposes of the ESA.
When assessing an advertisement, an
advertiser, or property agent should be guided by the following three
stage-approach:
Step 1: Identify trigger words
Does the advertisement include words or,
phrases which might reasonably give rise to an intention to discriminate?
The following is a non-exhaustive list of possible examples:
The Gender ground: man, woman, male, female,
gents, ladies, his, hers, unisex, same sex, gender.
The Civil Status ground: married, single.
The Family Status ground: family, children, single,
couple, bachelor, married, dependant(s), teenager, child, infant, baby toddler.
The Sexual Orientation ground: his and hers, traditional
couple, gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight.
The Religion ground: Christian, Muslim, Jew, faith, orthodox,
believer, God fearing, church-going, religion, religious.
The Age ground: young, mature, senior,
elderly, golden years, retired, student, pensioner.
The Disability ground: disabled, handicapped,
able-bodied.
The Race ground: race, ethnic, native,
Irish (or any nationality), non-national.
The Traveller community ground: Traveller, settled,
itinerant.
The
Housing Assistance ground: professional, rent allowance/supplement,
housing assistance, [means] tested, unemployed persons, dole recipients, job
seekers/benefits, social welfare recipients, work status, work reference,
corporate persons, work history, employed, remunerated, salaried, working.
It
is acknowledged that words, including but not limited to, “family”, “mature”,
and “professional” may capture adverts that are not necessarily discriminatory
in nature. For example – “family bathroom”,
“mature garden” or “professional landscaped garden” (These examples are
illustrative only and are not exhaustive).
Agents may seek to apply such further filter systems as appropriate and
necessary in this regard, but must seek to ensure compliance with the ESA.
“Trigger word(s), or phrase(s)” and where
appropriate the ad as a whole, that are clearly discriminatory in nature,
should be removed.
Step 2:
The advertisement should be assessed as a whole.
In certain circumstances, the context of
the ad as a whole should be assessed.
The assessor should, for instance, take
account of the specific features and location of the property, local amenities,
services, features and places of worship,
the intended audience (for rent or sale), and if for rent, the duration
of the lease.
The
assessor should ask whether the advertisement indicates an intention to engage
in discrimination (as outlined at Part B) or might reasonably be understood as
indicating such an intention. The assessor should ask whether any of the above
exceptions (as outlined at Part C) apply.
Step 3:
Making a determination
On following step 1 and 2 the agent
should be in a position to determine whether the advertisement is in compliance
with the ESA or, not.
On making the determination, the phrase
or, where appropriate, the entire advertisement should be removed.
If it remains unclear to the assessor, he
or she, should seek further information from source (where required) or seek
guidance from a supervisor, where appropriate.
This
is a guidance document only, and is not a definitive interpretation of the
current law. This document is without prejudice to an advertiser, or publisher
from seeking legal advice on any individual advertisement.
