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“I would like a young lady who is living in the flat, she doesn’t pay me any rent, but a couple of times a week we meet up and we f*** like crazy, okay?”

I’m speaking to Dave - he’s never met me, he has no idea who I am, but he’s just offered me a place to live in exchange for sex.

This is the sinister reality of men trying to rent their homes out for sex on Merseyside - arrangements which the government says are illegal and could lead to prosecutions.

Posing as "Emma", a young woman in need of a place to live, I contacted two men who advertised flats to rent online - promising reduced or free rent as part of a private arrangement.

Neither of the men asked about my personal situation, why I might need free housing or whether I was vulnerable in any way.

However, within moments of my first call with a would-be landlord it became clear what he wanted from me.

“I enjoy the company of younger ladies and I enjoy sex”

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The first man I spoke to called himself Dave. He’s married and he told me he works with computers.

Dave says he has a flat on the Wirral which he offers to let me live in for free if I agree to let him ‘f*** me silly’.

Within 10 minutes of speaking to him over the phone, he’d reeled off a list of ‘naughty’ things he wanted to do to me in his Wallasey ‘sex flat’.

At 48, Dave is exactly double my age - but that’s precisely what he’s looking for. His advert said he wanted to be a ‘daddy’ to a ‘younger lady’, who he wants to ‘wine, dine and spoil’. What he asks in return is a woman who is willing to ‘be good for daddy’.

When we spoke on the phone, Dave said: “I enjoy the company of younger ladies and I enjoy sex. If I could, and if there was an Olympic [event] in it I’d be winning gold every day of the week.”

I asked Dave what he would expect from me in exchange for a place to live rent free. He said: “From my point of it, I would like to see you a couple of times a week, have mad passionate sex, do all sorts of naughty things.”

As our conversation went on, he went into graphic detail about some of the things he wanted to do to me - the majority of which are too explicit for publication.

Dave didn’t ask any questions about my personal situation or my reasons for responding to the advert. He did ask whether I had a boyfriend and whether I lived with my parents.

When it came to surrendering his own personal information, Dave was surprisingly forthcoming. He said: “I’m probably a very unusual character, you ask me a question, I’ll give you the answer - you might not like it but it will be the truth.”

The truth is that Dave is a married man. He told me his wife knows he has sex with other women.

Dave told me there were things I might do for him that his wife didn’t want to - including specific sexual acts and going to "rock concerts".

At one point in the call, he said: “I am more than happy to let you explore but safe in the knowledge that I am never, ever going to let any harm come to you in any way, shape or form.”

Despite the explicit and unsettling nature of some of Dave’s desires, during our conversation he was unfailingly kind, friendly and almost paternal. He kept calling me ‘hun’, ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling’ throughout the call.

He tried to put me at ease in a situation I told him I’d never been in before, telling me we wouldn’t do anything I wasn’t comfortable with. He said he wasn’t ‘looking to take over my life in any way, shape or form’.

He didn’t pressure me or place any expectations on me at all - and this was one of the things that left me feeling incredibly uncomfortable when I got off the phone.

This was a man who was offering to act as my landlord and ‘daddy’ - he would be in complete control of my living situation and I would be entirely beholden to him. Whether he felt he was exerting pressure on me or not, problems of power and repayment could all come into play if you were indebted to a man for hundreds of pounds every month.

Had I been in a vulnerable position, or not in a sound state of mind, I can see how Dave’s gentle reassurance and kind nature would lull me into a sense of security in what could quickly become a toxic situation.

He asked me to meet up over the weekend for a meal and some drinks. I told him I’d think about it.

“We would come to an agreement, yeah. An adults’ agreement”

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Dave isn’t the only man offering free or discounted rent in exchange for an ‘adult agreement’. To find him, all I had to do was search for housing ads on Merseyside using the free classifieds site Craigslist.

Five minutes on Craigslist presented me with two men who had posted similar ads.

The second was for a flat in St Helens that would be shared with a truck driver called Paul. He was offering a room for £80 ‘for a female companion’ who was willing to ‘share everything with him’. The rent could be reduced ‘depending on what we can work out together’.

After a couple of texts in which Paul tried to convince me to meet him at the flat in St Helens. We agreed on a phone call.

At 48 years old, Paul told me he wanted some company - someone to come home to at the end of the day. Someone who would keep on top of things in his two bedroom flat and do his ironing.

Like Dave, he didn’t put any pressure on me to do anything I didn’t want to. He said the spare room had a double bed I could sleep in if I preferred.

However, he’d already asked me to send him pictures of myself in our texts - and when I asked what the expectations of me would be in exchange for reduced rent, the lines became slightly more blurred.

The advert said we would share ‘everything’ and when I asked Paul to clarify what this meant, he said: “We really need to meet up about that kind of stuff. You can’t really explain it over the phone. You’re an adult. Only if you want to. If we click, we click.”

Paul admitted he hadn’t placed an ad like this before, but he did tell me he ‘had needs’ and that we were ‘both single and both adults’.

When I asked if he would expect sex from me, he said: “We would come to an agreement, yeah. An adults’ agreement. You know, we might like each other. Have you got a boyfriend?”

Despite the pushy nature of his texts, Paul was far more sheepish when we spoke on the phone, telling me: “We could always meet and go for a brew somewhere, you don’t have to come back to the flat or anything, I’m not that type of person.”

Government ‘determined to crack down’

‘Arrangements’ based on sex for rent are illegal. As well as having the potential to leave vulnerable women in an incredibly tenuous living situation, it’s against the law.

Offering accommodation in return for sex violates Section 52 of the Sexual Offences Act of 2003 and could carry a jail sentence of up to seven years.

Responding to the ECHO’s investigation, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said: “Offering accommodation in return for sex is illegal and those who do so can face up to seven years in prison.

“We are determined to crack down on this problem and make sure the law is properly understood and enforced. Our message is clear - landlords who exploit vulnerable people will not be tolerated.”

The National Landlords Association also condemned the practice in a damning statement shared with the ECHO .

A spokeswoman for the landlords’ union said: “People advertising sex for rent are not landlords, they are criminals. They are exploiting the vulnerable in our society, and should be ashamed of themselves.

“It’s unfortunate that there needs to be a complaint lodged for police to take action. However, websites like Craigslist should be proactive in preventing these ads from being published.”

What happened when we contacted Paul and Dave again

We contacted Paul and Dave after our conversations to confront them about their propositions and let them know we would be publishing this article.

Paul denied any conversation about whether sex would factor into the ‘arrangement’ and said he was only looking for someone to do his cleaning and ironing in exchange for the room.

When we called the number I’d been texting and calling Dave on, the man who answered denied any knowledge of the conversation - but we later received a call from a man stating the flat in Wallasey was ‘no longer on the market’.

The Wirral advert has since been removed from Craigslist - but at the time of publication the St Helens listing was still live on the site.

Craigslist were approached for comment on the ads but they did not respond.

The ECHO has since reported both men to Merseyside Police and provided officers with all the available information.

Detective Chief Inspector Martin Earl, said: "We would urge anyone who believes they, or someone they know, have been exploited to contact police.

“Exploitation can take many forms, including sexual exploitation, forced labour and domestic servitude.

“The force has officers who are specially trained to investigate any allegations with expertise and sensitivity and I would encourage anyone who is a victim or has information to find the courage to come forward and speak to us. We will make sure all reports are properly and thoroughly investigated."

Both men made it clear that the ‘arrangements’ were being made between two consenting adults who were free to make their own decisions.

But problems arise when vulnerable women are drawn in by these adverts because they need somewhere to stay due to financial or personal problems, or because they are new to the country and in a precarious housing situation.

These women are still consenting adults, but their situations place them in a position where they may be forced to do things they feel uncomfortable or unsafe with, in order to have a roof over their heads.

'Enormous potential for abuse’

Commenting on the ECHO ’s investigation, a spokeswoman from the End Violence Against Women Coalition said: “There is enormous potential for abuse and exploitation with these ‘arrangements’. The local authorities and national government now needs to look at stepping in on these kinds of advertisements now.”

The practice of offering housing in exchange for sex was also condemned by Wirral South MP Alison McGovern, who said: “This is a pretty disgraceful way to treat women and I’m sure everyone in Merseyside will condemn it.

“The question now is who is responsible for stopping it happening, but I know that the police and other authorities will want to work together to make that happen.”

I was fortunate enough to be contacting these men from a position of complete security, but the conversations I had with them still left me feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

Within minutes I was being offered a place to stay in exchange for sex. These men didn’t know me or my personal circumstances.

I could speak to these men safe in the knowledge I would never have to consider such a risky situation in order to have a roof over my head.

Not every woman is that lucky.

If you, or someone you know, is suffering from any form of abuse or exploitation, you can find help and information here: