Renting a property

In general, it is unlawful for anyone responsible for renting or managing a residential or commercial property to discriminate against you on the grounds of your gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief, or disability in:

refusing to rent the property to you
setting the terms of rental that they offer
dealing with a list of people who need a particular type of property
providing or refusing to provide you with access to benefits or facilities
carrying out repairs or renovations, or
evicting you or subjecting you to some other harm, such as harassment.

Where consent is needed for property to be let or sub-let, it is unlawful for a person whose consent is required to discriminate in withholding that consent.

If you feel that you are being treated unfairly in any of these areas, you have the right to make a legal challenge. Before doing this, you should consider seeing one of the following:

a solicitor
a legal advice centre
a citizens’ advice bureau.

Example
A private landlord places an online advertisement for a ‘flat to let to Christian families only’. This could be discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief. Both the landlord and the person publishing the advertisement could be liable to legal action.

Example
A lettings agency dismisses a temporary worker who protested when a manager told staff not to show rental properties to customers from Eastern Europe, on the grounds that ‘they were all time-wasters’.

This unlawful instruction is direct racial discrimination against Eastern European customers. The dismissal happened because the temporary worker complained about the discrimination. This is unlawful victimisation of the temporary worker.

The lettings agency would be liable to legal action for racial discrimination and victimisation.

Discrimination is less favourable treatment; that is, treating someone less favourably than someone else for a reason related to their race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion or belief. There are limited circumstances in which it is lawful to discriminate, but this must be fully justified with objective reasons on each occasion.

Example
A landlord demands a larger deposit than usual on one property because the tenant is a woman. This would be direct sex discrimination, since the decision to treat the woman differently cannot be justified. The landlord would be liable to legal action for sex discrimination.

If you are a disabled person renting a property, there are special provisions relating to deposits (the money you pay the landlord when your lease starts, which is refundable at the end of the period of occupation provided that the property and contents are not damaged ). In very limited circumstances, treating someone less favourably when refunding a deposit can be justified.

If the property or contents have been damaged, the landlord could refuse to refund some or all of your deposit, even if the reason for the damage relates to your disability. The landlord would need to be able to demonstrate that this was reasonable in all the circumstances, including showing that the damage was sufficiently serious that a deduction from the deposit would normally be made.

Making reasonable adjustments to rental property

Additional protection is available for disabled people who rent, or want to rent, property. Under the Disability Discrimination Act, landlords or rental managers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to the property. However, you must request the adjustment.

There are limited circumstances in which the duty to make reasonable adjustments does not apply to the provision of housing.

Physical features

The duties on 'controllers' (landlords or rental managers) do not require them to take any steps which would consist of or include the removal or alteration of a physical feature

Physical features include:

any feature arising from the way the property is designed or constructed
any feature of any approach to, exit from or access to the property
any fixtures in or on the property
any other physical element or quality of any land that is part of comprised in the property.

Auxiliary aids and services

If you are a disabled person renting property, the landlord or rental manager has a duty to provide auxiliary aids and services if these would enable you, or make it easier for you, to enjoy the property or use any benefit or facility that you are entitled to use as part of renting the property. But they only have to do so if two conditions are met:

the aid or service must be of little or no use to you unless you are renting or occupying the property, and
without the aid or service it would be impossible, or unreasonably difficult, for you to use or enjoy the property or any related benefit or facility you are entitled to use.

Some examples of possible auxiliary aids and services include:

removing, replacing or providing furniture, furnishings, materials or equipment
replacing or providing signs or notices
replacing taps or door handles
replacing, providing or adapting door bells or door entry systems
changing the colour of a surface (such as a wall or a door).

Example
A person with arthritis who rents a furnished flat finds it very difficult to get out of the chairs in the flat because they are too low. He asks his landlord to change one of the chairs for a higher more suitable one. The landlord agrees and finds a chair in another of his flats that the disabled person can easily get out of. This is likely to be a reasonable step for the landlord to have to take.”

Disabled Facilities Grant

If you are a disabled person, or someone living in your property is a disabled person, and you or they will occupy the property for the next five years, you may be eligible for a Disabled Facilities Grant. This grant will cover some or all of the cost of adapting your property to make it fully accessible. Your eligibility for the grant will depend on your income and expenditure.

Changing practices, policies or procedures

If you are a disabled person, you can ask for a practice, policy or procedure to be changed if it has the effect of making it impossible, or unreasonably difficult, for you either to enjoy the property or to use any benefit or facility that you are entitled to use as part of renting the property, as long as the policy, practice or procedure would not have that effect if you were not disabled.

Changing a term of the lease

If you are a disabled person, you can ask for a change to a term of your lease which makes it impossible, or unreasonably difficult, for you to enjoy the property, as long as the term would not have that effect if you were not disabled.

The same applies to any benefit or facility that you are entitled to use as part of renting the property.

When discrimination is lawful

The restrictions on discrimination in renting a property do not apply to ‘small properties’. ‘Small properties’ are those in which some of the accommodation (excluding storage or access areas such as shared hallways) will be shared with the owner, or a near relative of theirs, who lives and intends to continue living there.

The term ‘near relative’ is defined by law as meaning husband and wife, civil partners, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters, including half- and step-brothers or sisters (relationships can be the result of marriage, civil partnership or adoption).

Disability discrimination

A ‘small property’ that fulfils the criteria above is also exempt from the duty to make reasonable adjustments if it is, or was, the only or principal home of the person who wants to let it. This exception does not apply if an estate agent is used to let the property.

Discrimination on the grounds of disability can also be justified if the person renting or managing the property reasonably believes one of the following points:

The discrimination is necessary in order not to endanger the health or safety of any person (which may include you).
You are not capable of entering into a legally enforceable contract, or of giving informed consent, and for that reason the discrimination is reasonable in that case.
Where the discrimination is in the way you have been permitted to use a benefit or facility, it is necessary in order that you, or the occupiers of other property forming part of the building, can use the benefit or facility.
Where the discrimination is about refusing or not allowing you to use a benefit or facility, it is necessary so that occupiers of other property forming part of the building can use the benefit or facility.
The discrimination is in order to recover costs incurred in the letting or managing of the property because of your disability. This does not include costs incurred in making reasonable adjustments, and does not permit eviction.