Fair Housing Notice

Housing discrimination law differs by country and, within federal systems, by state, province, and city. Local rules frequently protect more characteristics than national ones. Where they do, the broader local protection is the standard we apply, not the narrower national one.

Across the markets we serve, the following are commonly protected. Treat this as a floor rather than a complete list, because your jurisdiction may protect more:

• Race, colour, and ethnicity
• National origin and immigration status
• Religion or belief
• Sex, pregnancy, and maternity
• Sexual orientation
• Gender identity and expression
• Familial status and having children
• Disability and assistance-animal use
• Age
• Marital or civil partnership status
• Source of income, including housing assistance
• Military or veteran status

In the United States the Fair Housing Act covers race, colour, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), familial status, national origin, and disability. In the European Union and the United Kingdom, equal treatment directives and the Equality Act 2010 cover a comparable and in places broader set.

Describe the property, not the person you imagine living in it. Statements of preference, limitation, or exclusion based on a protected characteristic are prohibited even when well intended, and even when phrased as a welcome rather than a refusal.

Describing the property itself is fine: number of bedrooms, floor area, stair access, garden, parking, energy rating, and proximity to transport are all factual attributes. "Two bedrooms, third floor, no lift" is a permitted statement of fact; "not suitable for wheelchair users" is not.

We screen listing text automatically and on report. Listings that breach this notice are removed, and repeat breaches end the account.

Skautik ranks and matches listings from what you describe in your own words. That creates a real risk that a model reproduces demographic patterns in its training data, so we constrain it deliberately:

• protected characteristics are not inputs to ranking, matching, or recommendation, and are not inferred from your query in order to filter results;
• we do not offer audience targeting for housing advertising by protected characteristic or by proxies for it, including postcode-level targeting used to that effect;
• free-text queries that request a protected preference are not honoured as filters, and we surface a notice explaining why; and
• we review ranking changes for disparate outcomes before release, and keep records of those reviews.

If you believe an automated feature produced a discriminatory outcome, report it using the details below. We treat that as a defect with the same seriousness as a security issue.

Refusing a reasonable accommodation or modification for a disabled person is itself discrimination in most of the markets we serve. This includes assistance animals in properties that otherwise exclude pets, and reasonable physical modifications at the tenant's expense where the law provides for them.

Accessibility of the platform itself is covered separately in our accessibility statement. If a barrier on the site prevents you from using a listing, tell us and we will provide the information another way.

Report a listing, a message, or a product behaviour to legal@skautik.com. Include the listing link or account, what was said or shown, and the date. Reports are reviewed by a person, not only by an automated filter.

We acknowledge within two business days and aim to conclude within ten. We do not reveal your identity to the party you reported, and retaliating against someone for making a report is itself a breach of our terms.

You are never required to come to us first, and using our process does not affect your legal rights or any deadline that applies to them. Depending on where you are:

• United States: the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or your state or local fair housing agency.
• United Kingdom: the Equality and Human Rights Commission, or the Housing Ombudsman for social landlords.
• European Union: your national equality body, which every member state is required to maintain.
• Elsewhere: your national human rights or equal treatment authority.