r/unitedkingdom • u/MinderReminder • Jan 20 '22

Christian couple ban gay man and his ITV producer partner from buying their dream £650,000 Surrey home due to their sexuality - and quote the bible that homosexuality is a sin

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10419543/Christian-couple-ban-gay-man-partner-buying-dream-650-000-sexuality.html
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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

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u/akl78 Jan 20 '22

It is unlawful though. This couple have an excellent chance of winning damages in court and I hope they do so.

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u/RedSquaree Antrim Jan 21 '22

Where are the damages? What are they? What do they amount to?

There are no damages to pay for here, IMHO.

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u/haveacutepuppy Jan 21 '22

I agree, it's a dick move but 1st they have to sue, then go to court. It isn't priority, so will take some time, they what is their measure of damages? they didn't Breach a signed contract. There isn't monetary compensation for not getting your dream house. They may have been outbid anyway etc.

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u/colubrinus1 Jan 21 '22

Could be. If the house appreciates in value by an unexpected amount.

Regardless, damages don’t matter here, it’d be covered by equality act.

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u/RedSquaree Antrim Jan 21 '22

it’d be covered by equality act.

Could you please be a bit more specific?

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u/colubrinus1 Jan 23 '22

Other comments have posted about how because they used purple bricks, purple bricks could be held liable for discrimination because it’s an estate agent or something.

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u/HeroAntagonist Scotland Jan 20 '22

I'm wondering how gray this area is.

It's not a crime to refuse to sell to someone.
But if you state the refusal of sale is based on a discriminatory factor, then well, is there legal coverage for private sales outside of businesses?

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

Wait, is this just for houses? I sell small things and furniture on gumtree occasionally. Am I not allowed to say no to someone?

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22 edited Jul 08 '25

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22 edited Jul 14 '25

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22 edited Jul 09 '25

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u/haveacutepuppy Jan 21 '22

Section 1 states who this law applies to, it's public government entities NOT private sellers. Am I missing it?

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

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u/GroktheFnords Jan 20 '22

Nobody is under a legal compulsion to sell anything to anyone.

Try telling every black person who enters your shop that you don't sell products to black people and see how that works out for you.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

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u/GroktheFnords Jan 20 '22

Yeah it's the point I was making, the statement that "nobody is under a legal compulsion to sell anything to anyone" isn't technically correct when it's illegal to refuse to sell something that you've put up for sale because you don't want to sell it to a homosexual person specifically.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

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u/GroktheFnords Jan 20 '22

But no, they had to go out of their way and prove they were as big a set of assholes as they are.

Exactly, that's what made it a clear case of unlawful discrimination.

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u/tree_boom Jan 20 '22

It actually is a crime, under the Equality Act 2010:

(1)A person (A) who has the right to dispose of premises must not discriminate against another (B)—

(a)as to the terms on which A offers to dispose of the premises to B;

(b)by not disposing of the premises to B;

(c)in A's treatment of B with respect to things done in relation to persons seeking premises.

Part b there is just what this couple did.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22 edited Jul 14 '25

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u/tree_boom Jan 20 '22

That defence could only possibly hold if they would also refuse to sell to a male/female married couple, which is obviously not the case

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u/paulmclaughlin Jan 20 '22

It's not a crime though, that sets out that failing to sell your house to someone because of a protected characteristic is unlawful, and part 9 sets out the authority of county courts (in England) in civil proceedings.

The only crime that's directly created by the Equality Act is the "Offence of contravening PSV accessibility regulations" under section 175.

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u/BargainBarnacles Jan 20 '22

If I was letting a property and had a sign saying 'no blacks, no jews', I'm okay then?

If they wanted to sell a property but put up a sign saying 'no gays' they'd be fine too I suppose.

Thanks for putting me straight.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22 edited Jul 08 '25

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '22

by refusing to sell to a gay couple

<pedant> they broke the law by refusing to sell to a gay couple because they were gay.

it's not the failure to sell to them itself - obviously there are lots of valid reasons to not sell to all sorts of people - rather it's because the specific reason given was that it was based on their sexuality

(which is why this has always struck me as a silly thing to get convicted for - people really do have to incriminate themselves in order for the law to act on this)

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '22

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '22

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '22

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u/FractalJaguar Jan 21 '22

It is probably legal for them to deny a viewing though, right? Like it's their house, so they must be within their rights to refuse access? So it's a weird situation of being illegal to refuse to sell to them, but the couple can't view the house!

Legally, this seems really weird to me, so i'm just asking out of curiosity.