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Sleazy landlords are trading free rooms in exchange for sex with women desperate for somewhere to live.
Wales Online 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. “Looking for a landlady or a gentle landlord.”
Wales Online posted an ad on Craigslist posing as a 22-year-old woman looking for a rent-free place.
Within days, their 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 vulnerability 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 hard look” at the problem. (NAN)
