Section 13: discrimination in relation to letting of premises
141.Disabled people are already protected against some forms of discrimination in relation to premises. The relevant provisions can be found in sections 22 to 24 of the DDA. Under those sections it is unlawful for persons who are selling or letting premises to discriminate against a disabled person in the way they offer to dispose of the premises to the disabled person, by refusing to offer to dispose of the premises to the disabled person, or in their treatment of him in relation to any waiting list for the premises. It is further unlawful for persons who manage premises to discriminate against a disabled person occupying the premises in the way they permit the disabled person to use any benefits or facilities, or by evicting the disabled person or subjecting him to any other detriment. Provision is also made prohibiting discrimination where people withhold their licence or consent for the disposal of premises to a disabled person.
142.Section 13 inserts new sections 24A to 24L into Part 3 of the DDA. These make it unlawful for landlords and managers, in relation to premises they wish to let or that are let, to discriminate against a disabled tenant or prospective tenant by failing without justification to comply with a duty to provide a reasonable adjustment for the disabled person. As with other Part 3 provisions, a victim of discrimination contrary to new sections 24A to 24L will be able to bring enforcement proceedings in a county or sheriff court under section 25 of the DDA. See also new section 24M (premises provisions do not apply where other provisions operate) inserted by paragraph 20 of Schedule 1, discussed below, and section 16 (improvements to let dwelling houses).
143.The letting of commercial and residential premises in the United Kingdom is covered. “Letting” is defined widely to include sub-letting – and the granting of contractual licences to occupy premises, i.e. where the legal relationship created is not one of landlord and tenant. (See new sections 24A(4) and 24G(4)).
144.The new provisions would require a landlord or manager to take reasonable steps to change a policy, practice or procedure which makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for⎯
a disabled person to take a letting of the premises, or
(where there is a letting already in existence) a disabled tenant – or other disabled person lawfully occupying the premises – to enjoy the premises or use a benefit or facility conferred with the lease,
so that the policy, practice or procedure concerned no longer has that effect (see new sections 24D and 24J(3) and (4)).
For example, a landlord or manager may be obliged (where it was reasonable to do so)⎯
to allow a tenant who has mobility difficulties to leave his rubbish in another place if he cannot access the designated place;
to allow an occupier who uses a wheelchair to use an existing accessible entrance at the back of a block of flats even though other tenants cannot use it.
145.The provisions would also require a landlord or manager to take reasonable steps to provide an auxiliary aid or service where that would either⎯
enable or facilitate a disabled person’s enjoyment of the premises or use of any benefit or facility conferred with the letting; or
(as the case may be) enable or make it easier for a disabled person to take a letting of the premises.
146.The duty would apply if, were the auxiliary aid or service not provided, it would be impossible or unreasonably difficult for a disabled person or occupier to enjoy the premises, to make use of any benefit or facility they were entitled to use or (as the case may be) to take a letting.
147.For example, a landlord or manager may need to put correspondence in large print for a visually impaired tenant or provide a clip-on receiver (which vibrates when the door bell rings) for a tenant who has a hearing impairment . However the landlord/manager would not have to provide an auxiliary aid or service unless it was needed specifically in connection with the premises concerned. So, he would not, for instance, be obliged to provide a wheelchair for a tenant who had difficulty in walking: the tenant would need this for general purposes, and not just moving around the flat or house let to him by the landlord. (See new sections 24C and 24J(1) and (2)).
148.These duties would not require the making of any alteration to the physical features of premises by a landlord or manager (see new sections 24E(1) and 24J(5)). However they may place a controller of premises, in an appropriate case, under a duty to change or waive a term of the letting which prohibits any alterations to the premises, to the extent necessary to allow a tenant, with the consent of the landlord(6) to make (at his own expense and subject to reasonable conditions including conditions as to reinstatement) alterations needed by reason of the disabled occupier’s disability.
149.If the terms of the letting are modified to permit an alteration with the landlord’s consent, then the provisions of new section 49G (inserted by section 16) would apply. Section 16 makes procedural and evidential provision as to the withholding of consent to disability-related “improvements” by a landlord, and also provides for the Disability Rights Commission to issue a code of practice and provide conciliation services and support in disputes.
150.The Government intends to make regulations setting out the circumstances in which it is reasonable for a landlord to have to modify or waive a term in a lease prohibiting the making of alterations to a let dwelling house, where that term makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to enjoy the premises. The exemptions to the duty of reasonable adjustment described below, i.e. the exemptions for small dwellings and the landlord’s principal or only home, would operate.
151.A landlord or manager would not have to take any steps under the new provisions unless requested to do so by the tenant or prospective tenant (see new sections 24C(1), 24D(1) and (2) and 24J(1) and (3)).
152.The provisions do not apply to premises which are, or have been at any time, the principal or only home of the landlord or manager (see new sections 24B(1) and 24H(1)).
153.These provisions also do not apply to a landlord or manager who lives on the premises where there is not normally residential accommodation on the premises for more than six persons, or the premises do not contain residential accommodation for more than two other households besides that occupied by the landlord or manager and members of his household. This is the exemption currently provided in section 23 of the DDA (see new sections 24B(3) and (4), and 24H(3) and (4)). However, the exemption can be limited or ended under section 14 of the 2005 Act.
154.In limited circumstances, a landlord or manager may justify less favourable treatment or a failure to take reasonable steps: see new section 24K. Where he or she can do so, no unlawful discrimination occurs. Section 24K(3) would allow the Secretary of State in regulations to amend, add to or remove the conditions under which a person’s failure to comply with a reasonable adjustment duty can be justified.
155.New section 24F makes special provision where a landlord or manager has incurred costs in taking steps under the new duties in the case of a disabled person lawfully occupying the premises but who is not the tenant (for example, a disabled child of the tenant). This new section makes it unlawful for the landlord/manager to victimise that tenant (whether or not he is disabled) by, for instance, evicting him or increasing the rent. (Section 22 of the DDA, read with section 55, would make it unlawful for a landlord to evict a disabled tenant because the latter asked for a reasonable adjustment to be made on account of his own disability or to evict any tenant, whether or not disabled, solely because the tenant asked for a reasonable adjustment to be made for the benefit of a disabled person who lawfully occupies the premises but is not a tenant.)
156.New section 24L(1) confers power on the Secretary of State to make supplementary provisions by regulations, for example to prescribe what steps it is reasonable for a landlord to have to take, or what constitutes an auxiliary aid or physical feature.
157.New section 24L(2) makes it clear that the regulations made under subsection (1)(a) can provide for a commonhold unit to be treated as let to a person where that person is a unit-holder.
158.It would be contrary to sections 22 to 24 of the DDA for a landlord/manager to single out for increase any one tenant’s rent or service charge in order to pay for the cost of steps taken under the new provisions inserted by section 13: see the amendments made to section 24 by paragraph 19 of Schedule 1 (and the notes on that provision below). The landlord may make an “across the board” increase to all his tenants (including the disabled tenant) to cover costs.
Where a term in the letting permits alterations with the landlord’s consent, a requirement that consent is not to be unreasonably withheld would normally be read into that revised term even if not specifically provided for. This is because section 19(2) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 provides that a condition in a lease or tenancy agreement forbidding a tenant from carrying out improvements to the premises without the landlord’s consent is to be read as one saying that such consent is not to be unreasonably withheld.
