Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Exposed: The ‘sex for rent’ landlords
AN explosion in sex-for-rent adverts is revealed today after an undercover reporter was asked to offer herself for spanking, daily romps and become a kinky slave.
The perverted “invites” came from a finance director, supermarket manager and an architect.
One wanted our journalist to wear a costume and another wanted to put her over his knee.
There were a string of other sickening suggestions and demands from “landlords” up and down the country.
Our female reporter, in her 20s, posed as a would-be tenant after replying to dozens of adverts on a UK rental site.
In a string of meetings, she was urged to visit the landlords’ homes – despite them being strangers – and told she must perform depraved sexual favours to live there for free.
We launched a probe after figures indicated 250,000 cash-strapped women are being offered sex in exchange for free or discounted lodgings.
Housing charity Shelter today accused the landlords of an abuse of power.
We found countless sex-for-rent posts in the housing section on internet ad site Craigslist.
Under room rentals, a 62-year-old finance director was advertising for a Kajira – a sex slave inspired by the Gor novels. In return, he offered free rent and food in his flat at London’s Canary Wharf complex, with use of spa and gym.
In an email, he told our investigator: “A Kajira’s role is to satisfy my every desire and whim.”
When she met him days ago, he told her: “What I normally do, we put together a contract and – it’s not legal
– it basically says you’re coming into the room as the
Kajira, technically.
COLLAR
You’d wear a costume, have sex and call me Master, M ...or just Sir FINANCIER ON WARPED TERMS OF FLAT TENANCY
“After a month you might wear a little collar, yes? A necklace.”
He insisted she wear a kinky slave costume called a
Ta-Teera in his presence and address him as “Master”, “M” or “Sir”.
Another “requirement” was that she would not have a boyfriend – and she would be issued with a slave name of his choosing.
He stressed the reporter had the choice to impose certain “limits”. When asked what would be compulsory, he said: “There would be certain things that would be sexually... sex is, obviously”.
The landlord also stroked the reporter’s fingernails during his meeting and told her: “We’ll get nice nails put on these”.
He gushed about his love of classical music and added: “You would be very well looked after. It’s not going to be X Factor, it’s more going to be Shakespeare and Mozart.”
The financier said domestic chores would be split with a second “slave”.
Our investigator met the 52-year-old woman, who was not recruited through Craigslist.
She described herself as a slave who had been “looking for a master” when she moved into his apartment two weeks ago.
The woman showed us her contract, which had clauses including having to ask permission to change her hair and body shape – plus explicit sexual content too shocking to publish.
When the Sunday Mirror confronted the landlord, he declined to comment.
After we pointed out broke tenants may feel pressured to enter into such a deal, he insisted: “That’s not how it was presented at all.”
Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, it is illegal to cause or incite prostitution for gain. But the law says nothing specific of sex-for-rent deals. Last July, Labour MP Peter Kyle called for the rogue landlords to be prosecuted.
Justice Secretary David Lidington told Mr Kyle in a letter “that an offence is committed when a person offers accommodation in return for sex, as they are inciting/causing another person to have sex in return for ‘payment’.”
Some landlords have previously argued there is no obligation for would-be tenants to respond to adverts. But as the rental market grows there are fears more women will be exploited.
Figures released last month reveal 46 per cent of 25-34-year-olds rent private property – up from 27 per cent in 2007.
Our investigators found another landlord, a 56-year-old architect, advertising free food and board at his Hertfordshire home – on the condition that he’d regularly spank the tenant.
He told our investigator: “The arrangement is basically a free furnished double bedroom. In return, two to three times a week, you would come up to my room and get undressed and bend over my knee for a spanking.
“After the spanking, during which hopefully we will both be very turned on, we would have some sexual fun including oral as a minimum but preferably also protected sex.”
IMPLEMENTS
When she met the architect in person, she asked if sex was compulsory. He replied: “Well, yes, because obviously it’s a good deal. You’re living totally free.”
He told her the spankings may involve other implements in time and insisted the arrangement had worked for him previously.
The landlord also said he has a live-in tenant with “a slightly different arrangement but yes, she gets spanked if she’s naughty”. When we later tackled him, he said the ad has been online some time but nobody had taken up the offer.
He said: “This isn’t something I do regularly. If you guys feel it’s immoral then I’ll stop doing it. I don’t want to be perceived like that at all.
“It’s a kink I have, I’m afraid, but I don’t go beating up women or forcing myself on women. It’s always their choice.”
Our investigator was also propositioned by a supermarket manager who offered her an attic room in West London for regular sex.
In an email exchange, he told her he was 31 and wrote: “My rules are you can stay at mine as long as you give me sex in return.”
When they met in person, the manager changed his age to 25 and immediately asked the reporter to get in his car with him – which she refused. Halfway through the meeting, he
asked again, saying: “We’ve talked already and it’s not like I’m gonna do anything.”
Our reporter asked: “So we share a bed then? What happens?”
He replied: “Just, literally, like, be close then just have some fun.”
Asked to say whether this meant sex, including oral sex, he said “yeah”. He then said he would expect sex “most likely every night or every day or every second day”.
When asked if she would pay rent or bills, he said: “No, no, no, no.”
He also quizzed our reporter about when she had last had sex and asked: “Is there anything you wouldn’t do?” After the meeting, the supermarket manager sent her a message which read: “Even if you don’t want that offer we can work something else out, like I can help you with money in exchange for sex. The money would help you out.”
When we confronted him, he insisted: “I wasn’t going to go through with it. I’m still single, and I was just thinking ‘so you know what, maybe I’ll find a girlfriend or something’. She was the only person I saw in relation to it. I realised it was something that wasn’t right, to be honest. That’s why I didn’t take it any further. I ain’t done nothing wrong or anything.”
Other advertisers we contacted on Craigslist included a man in Sheffield seeking a “mature, busty, chunky female”. He told our reporter: “What would be your limits? It would only be twice a week. I’m not some weirdo...” The ad has since been removed.
Another man, who claimed to be 48, offered a free bed in Nottingham. He said in an email: “The idea of sharing a bed is that me – and the other woman – would have regular ‘no strings’ fun.”
One couple claiming to live in Harlow, Essex, offered the choice of two flats for free on the premise our reporter became a live-in girlfriend.
They emailed: “It would be a committed threeway relationship. We would expect you to be loyal to us. Rent free and free food. It would be sexual like a normal relationship. If you are not bisexual it would be a case of just sharing the male.”
Craigslist has been contacted for a comment.