Zoopla says it’s introducing new measures to minimise the presence of what it calls “blanket restrictions” imposed on tenants who receive housing benefit.

The portal has already contacted member agents, back in November, in support of recommendations from the National Landlords Association and Residential Landlord’s Association over the No DSS controversy. 

Now it says it will amend the Zoopla Member Terms and Conditions to specifically prohibit the inclusion of ‘No DSS’ restrictions on the site, and will implement a process to remove such references from listings uploaded to the Zoopla website.

It is also removing the ‘No DSS’ fields in its cloud-based software products.

“We fully support the recommendations of the NLA and the RLA, which oppose blanket bans against tenants in receipt of housing-related benefits, and are pleased to be taking action which clarifies this position. All tenants who are looking to rent a property deserve the chance to be fully assessed for their suitability and matched to a home that suits both their and the landlord’s circumstances” explains Charlie Bryant, Zoopla’s managing director.

“We proactively sought the views of our largest lettings-focused agents to ensure the above measures were undertaken on a collaborative basis and received significant support in respect of our proposed additional measures”.