I think legal or not, it's pretty standard practise. I mean either way it's an odd thing to make an account just to drag up a thread from three years ago
Yep this. I've had countless tenants who are on DSS but 'forget to sign on' or 'they've mucked up my claim' and so they just stop paying. You also can't insist HB is paid directly to you. Unfortunately a few bad eggs ruin it for everyone PLUS a lot of landlord insurances have extra premiums if your tenant is on housing benefit. So it's not always a choice!
Totally legal and VERY common! I'm in rented and would never let my kids cause damage and if they did I'd fix it. But there are the bad eggs who do let their children trash the place and do a runner! It makes landlords nervous
Legal aid isn't like that any more. It's tough to get it. Even in custody cases you can only get it if there's been domestic violence. I doubt you'd get it for a review of this law.
I haven't seen many places saying 'no children' mostly very small flats that just wouldn't be practical. A huge amount of places are no dss or pets though, I have a cat and a dog and was evicted after a big fall out with my previous landlord because he came in to my flat when I wasn't home and scared the life out of my cat (I'm pretty sure he kicked her, she used to love everyone and since that day she will hide if any stranger comes in) then decided he wanted to put my rent up by £100 a month (basically he wanted us out so he could renovate and turn it into a three bed to get more money for it). it took over 6 months to find somewhere that accepted pets, 4 days before we had to be out I finally managed to find someone who accepted pets and dss. the way i see it any damage or marks my daughter makes i fix them, this is my home for the foreseeable future, I'm even planning on replacing some of the floors because it's carpeted throughout which drives me crazy