Sex for rent: landlords offer 'room in return for cooking, cleaning and oral once or twice a week'

[editor]

I just watched this on BBC and it was stomach-churning stuff. More than enough landlords are exploitative scumbags but this lot took it to whole new low.

Cases of ‘Rent for Sex’ in the UK are on the increase, where landlords offer free rooms in their properties in exchange for ‘sexual favours’. Investigative journalist Ellie Flynn goes undercover to get a closer look at this issue.

Having seen the staggering amount of ‘Rent for Sex’ adverts that appear unchecked online, Ellie heads out to discover for herself just how genuine these ads are. Armed with undercover cameras, she meets landlords who post these ads to find out what they really expect in exchange for rent.

The landlords she confronts protest that it is a mutually beneficial arrangement. One tells her she can stay in a log cabin he’s built in exchange for a “physical arrangement once a week” stating that it’s “nothing abnormal, nothing strange” and telling her she has to be able to deal with that or she shouldn’t be there.

Another tells her the arrangement would be every second day and either oral or penetrative sex. She finds people all over the UK offering accommodation in exchange for sex, one even saying the reason the room has become available is because it belongs to his daughter and she’s left to go to University.

One prospective landlord tells her he’s taking the human aspect out of it and treating it like a business transaction, while others assure her they’re just normal guys who just want to help people. All the landlords suggest to Ellie what they’re doing is acceptable, but is this how the person taking up the offer would see it? Can it really be consensual when they are preying on vulnerable young people with nowhere else to go?

To find out she tracks down and speaks to young women who have taken up these ‘arrangements’ and asks them how much ‘consent’ they felt able to give when the alternative was a life on the streets.

Despite laws that exist to criminalise this practice, Ellie asks why there doesn’t seem to be anyone doing anything to prevent it. From police forces to the Ministry of Justice themselves, she uncovers a vacuum of responsibility that currently exists around this practice.

BBC - Ellie Undercover: Rent For Sex - Media Centre

 

[Miss-Shelf]

I just watched this on BBC and it was stomach-churning stuff. More than enough landlords are exploitative scumbags but this lot took it to whole new low.

uggggh
but sadly not surprising

 

[editor]

uggggh
but sadly not surprising

It's real fucking sleaze.

 

[BCBlues]

It's real fucking sleaze.

It's on bbc iplayer I think. I haven't got round to watching it yet but the issue itself makes your skin crawl.

 

[cupid_stunt]

It's fucking unbelievable, I first read about it a few years ago, noticed that BBC documentary in the listings, so I've recorded it & will watch later.

 

[kabbes]

It’s more than sleaze, it’s rape. Holding somebody’s accommodation hostage as coercion to sex seems pretty clear cut as rape to me.

 

[Spymaster]

It’s more than sleaze, it’s rape. Holding somebody’s accommodation hostage as coercion to sex seems pretty clear cut as rape to me.

It’s not rape unless you’d consider paying a prostitute to be rape. There is the same level of consent. The piece says it’s illegal though so I assume it’s a morality thing.

 

[Edie]

It’s not rape

 

[Athos]

It’s more than sleaze, it’s rape. Holding somebody’s accommodation hostage as coercion to sex seems pretty clear cut as rape to me.

It's not rape. It's capitalism.

 

[OzT]

Not even capitalism, think it has been going on since time began, world wide, certainly noted in the middle ages.

Very not nice.

 

[bimble]

I remember seeing ads like this on gumtree years and years ago. At least they say clearly what the deal is.

 

[marshall]

I remember seeing ads like this on gumtree years and years ago. At least they say clearly what the deal is.

Yh, unfortunately this isn't new 'news', not just London either, my daughters both had reports of this while at uni in Leeds and Liverpool

 

[Spymaster]

Playing devil’s advocate, how bad is this?

It’s certainly sleazy as fuck but if the deal is clearly stated and pursued by the prospective tenant isn’t it her choice what to do with her body?

 

[Athos]

Playing devil’s advocate, how bad is this?

It’s certainly sleazy as fuck but if the deal is clearly stated and pursued by the prospective tenant isn’t it her choice what to do with her body?

I don't suppose many people with any real choice go for this. If the choice is between this and be homeless, is that really a choice?

 

[Spymaster]

I don't suppose many people with any real choice go for this. If the choice is between this and be homeless, is that really a choice?

I’d agree to an extent but not everyone in sex work is there under duress, physical or financial. Plenty see it as an easier way to make more money than working as a waitress or cleaner. If that’s their view should they be prevented from doing as they please?

 

[Athos]

I’d agree to an extent but not everyone in sex work is there under duress, physical or financial. Plenty see it as an easier way to make more money than working as a waitress or cleaner. If that’s their view should they be prevented from doing as they please?

Goes back to the question of the reality of 'choice' under capitalism.

 

[bellaozzydog]

The landlords seemed Pitiful lonely and lacking any self awareness that what they were suggesting was immoral.

I got the impression that they had failed to get to Thailand to exploit local sex workers but had found a niche in the uk where their economic power (owning a property) worked in their favour to give them access to women in a way that they are incapable of within societal norms

 

[Spymaster]

Goes back to the question of the reality of 'choice' under capitalism.

Well yes, which in turn raises the question of what would be a workable alternative.

 

[Slo-mo]

Playing devil’s advocate, how bad is this?

It’s certainly sleazy as fuck but if the deal is clearly stated and pursued by the prospective tenant isn’t it her choice what to do with her body?

Pretty fucking bad, although I would agree it stops short of rape (although what happens if you get part way through the tenancy and don't want to do the sex anymore?)

If you must, rent your room for cash and spend the money on a prostitute.

 

[Spymaster]

If you must, rent your room for cash and spend the money on a prostitute.

How is that different?

 

[bellaozzydog]

How is that different?

Well you don"t live with the prostitute after the transaction he/she never has to see you again if they choose

 

[OzT]

Goes back to the question of the reality of 'choice' under capitalism.

Not sure why you keep going back to capitalism. During the middle ages feudal lords did much the same thing. In communist countries the overlords did much the same to the peasants. In deepest darkiest uncivilized countries that happens, people taking advantages of their positions and abusing the needy.

As I said, not very nice, but the the exclusive domain of capitalism.

 

[bellaozzydog]

Not sure why you keep going back to capitalism. During the middle ages feudal lords did much the same thing. In communist countries the overlords did much the same to the peasants. In deepest darkiest uncivilized countries that happens, people taking advantages of their positions and abusing the needy.

As I said, not very nice, but the the exclusive domain of capitalism.

It's the exclusive domain of power and in contemporary times that is economic power

 

[Spymaster]

Well you don"t live with the prostitute after the transaction he/she never has to see you again if they choose

Why does that matter? The sex-lodger can end the agreement too.

 

[bellaozzydog]

Why does that matter? The sex-lodger can end the agreement too.

With the loss of their accommodation? You are just pulling my pud aren't you

 

[Athos]

Not sure why you keep going back to capitalism. During the middle ages feudal lords did much the same thing. In communist countries the overlords did much the same to the peasants. In deepest darkiest uncivilized countries that happens, people taking advantages of their positions and abusing the needy.

As I said, not very nice, but the the exclusive domain of capitalism.

Because we're talking about what's happening here and now. And that's a product of capitalism. That's not say it didn't happen under other conditions (e.g. where power was expressed through different means). But neither ought we to think it's inevitable under all.

 

[Spymaster]

With the loss of their accommodation? You are just pulling my pud aren't you

So you’re arguing that only people who would otherwise be homeless would take up such an offer?

 

[bellaozzydog]

So you’re arguing that only people who would otherwise be homeless would take up such an offer?

No. Where did you get your internet debating diploma from

 

[JimW]

So you’re arguing that only people who would otherwise be homeless would take up such an offer?

Well your argument would rely on a ready supply of easily affordable housing to provide an alternative and there isn't, so some measure of economic compulsion exists however you slice it.

 

[OzT]

It's the exclusive domain of power and in contemporary times that is economic power

Because we're talking about what's happening here and now. And that's a product of capitalism. That's not say it didn't happen under other conditions. But neither ought we to think it's inevitable under all.

So why was this not a hot topic in the late 90s and early 2000s when socialists were in power in England?

I agree there should be actions against the landlords, it IS a disguisting thing. I am also making a point that it is a crime against humanity but not as simple as slotting it inder a capitalism or socialism or any political/economical label.