LANDLORDS WANT SEX FOR ROOMS
Adverts looking for tenants to pay in kind
S LEAZY landlords across Wales are trading free rooms in exchange for sex with women desperate for somewhere to live.
We found scores of ads posted on classifieds site Craigslist from men looking for women in need of a place.
One offered “nice lovely all new fitted out” one and two-bedroomed flats in Cardiff and the Valleys.
“Tenant with benefits wanted,” the post read. “Must reply with pic.” Another promised a “free room for [a] female” in Cardiff.
Prospective tenants were also offering themselves in exchange for rooms.
One 19-year-old from Bridgend said she was “19, bisexual, size 18, 38E.”
“I’m looking for free rent in exchange for what you want,” she wrote on the site.
“Obviously nobody else would know about this, it would stay strictly between the two of us.”
She did not want to be in a place with more than two people.
“I’m very open-minded, have a very high sex drive, kind, respectful and a good cleaner,” she said.
“I’d want any agreement to be realistic, like if you’re expecting six times a day every day – that’s not going to happen.
“Not because I wouldn’t want to but because I’d have stuff to do some days.”
A 21-year-old “cute, polite, educated” male wanted somewhere in re- turn for being “entirely to your disposition several times a week”.
“I am bisexual and have a high sexual appetite,” he said.
“I’ve experimented yet [am] curious and ready to try a lot of things.
“Looking for a landlady or a gentle landlord.”
We posted an ad on Craigslist posing as a 22-year-old woman looking for a rent-free place.
Within days our reporter was flooded with messages from men offering free rooms.
One said they had a one-bed flat on the side of their house with “full bathroom, bedroom and living room”.
Some claimed they only required the room to be kept clean.
One got in touch to ask: “Do you have a photo?”
A “tall, submissive guy” said he would “not be after any money, but for woman in spare room to be bossy with me, telling me what to do round the house”.
One said he did not have a spare room but that our investigator could “sleep in my bed with me”.
Another landlord said he would accept either payment or “sex, kinky sex, maybe three to four times in a week, day or night”.
Andrew Wallis, who is chief executive of anti-slavery charity Unseen, raised concerns about the vulnera- bility of tenants entering into these kind of arrangements.
“I think landlords placing these ads are treading as close to the line as they can in terms of breaking the law,” he said.
“It’s as close as you can get without stepping over the line.
“It’s playing on vulnerable people and putting them in a situation which makes them further vulnerable.”
Exploitation was his “primary concern”.
“We know there is a thin line between what is exploitative as defined under the Modern Slavery Act,” he said.
“We are calling for a change in the law.”
He urged Craigslist and other organisations to have a “good look” at the problem.
“When your platform is used to exploit people you have a moral responsibility to police it better,” Mr Wallis said.
“These ads are proliferating and the potential for people being put in dangerous and exploitative situations is increasing.”
Youth homelessness charity Centrepoint said 26% of homeless young people have stayed with a stranger in the UK.
“Exploiting the vulnerability of homeless young people by demanding sex in exchange for rent is abhorrent and websites carrying these advertisements must take responsibility for moderating the content they display,” spokesman Paul Noblet said.
“It is tragic that young people are finding themselves with no option but to resort to desperate measures to avoid sleeping rough – hurting themselves to access A and E, committing minor crimes to find shelter in a police cell, or staying with a stranger.
“No young person should those appalling choices.”
Assembly Member Dawn Bowden has called for action to stop the practice, which she dubbed “inherently face immoral”.
“I find it unbelievable that landlords can advertise properties free in return for sexual favours,” she said.
“I think that is exploitation of the worst kind.”
Ms Bowden said there was “a whole underbelly” of people who could find themselves homeless.
“Landlords that offer accommodation free for sex are just exploiting and it is the worst kind of exploita-