970.The provisions in this Schedule apply to earlier Schedules in the Act dealing with reasonable adjustments where a person providing services or carrying out public functions, an employer, an education provider or an association is required to consider reasonable adjustments to premises which it rents and would require landlord consent to do so. It sets out what steps it is reasonable for a person to take in discharging a duty to make reasonable adjustments in a case where a binding agreement requires that consent must be obtained from a third party before that person may proceed to make the adjustment to let premises or the common parts of let premises.
971.Where a person wishes to make an adjustment in order to fulfil a duty to make reasonable adjustments but is unable to do so, the Schedule enables the adjustment to be made by deeming the tenancy to include certain provisions. For example the tenancy may have effect as if a tenant is able to make alterations with the consent of the landlord.
972.Where a landlord has refused consent to an alteration or gives consent subject to a condition, the person requesting the consent (or a disabled person who has an interest in the alteration being made) can refer the refusal (or the conditional consent) to a county or sheriff court.
973.The Schedule also provides for a landlord to be joined as a party to proceedings before an employment tribunal, county or sheriff court where a disabled person is bringing an action under the reasonable adjustment duty.
974.The Schedule provides a power to make regulations about matters such as when a landlord is taken to have refused consent, when such refusal is unreasonable and when it is reasonable. Words and phrases used in the Schedule are interpreted consistently with the parts of the Act to which it cross-refers.
975.This Schedule replaces similar provisions in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. It also applies in relation to the new duty to make alterations to the physical features of common parts of let and commonhold residential premises in England and Wales.
An insurance company works from a rented two storey building and has plans to install a stair lift to make the building more accessible to employees with mobility impairments. The terms of the lease preclude alterations to the staircase. The company writes to the landlord for permission to make the alteration. The landlord consults the superior landlord who agrees to waive this condition of the lease thereby allowing the installation of the chair lift to proceed. However, as a condition of consent, the landlord requires that the chair lift is removed on surrender of the lease.
A disabled tenant asks to have automated doors put in at the entrance of her block of flats. Her landlord would like to agree but is unable to do so as he is a tenant of a superior landlord who does not agree to the alteration. The tenant’s remedy is to bring an action against her landlord in the county court where she can ask that the superior landlord is brought in as an additional party to the case. The court can order the alteration to be made and order the superior landlord to pay compensation if it finds he has acted unreasonably in refusing his consent.