Is this fair or is this discrimination due to disability (tenancy renewal)?

theyiddo

Hi all - not sure if this is the right section for this query but thought I'd ask in case any of you out there might have better understanding knowledge of the Equality Act 2010 with regards to housing.

My wife and I managed to find a house close to our own for our autistic daughter to rent. For the 1st year, as she had just left college, was not working and had just started to receive Universal Credit, my wife and I agreed with the landlord's agent to pay 12mths rent up front, and we were both guarantors on the tenancy agreement as well.

Our daughter is in the process of renewing the tenancy, and we simply cannot afford to do the same again (i.e. pay 12mths up front), however our daughter is working part-time and receiving UC. We explained this to the landlord's agent, and they said this was fine and we'd once again we'd have to be guarantors. We agreed and subsequently passed the agent's assessment on that, but the agent is now stating that our daughter has failed the assessment, because her earnings (PT employment + UC), is somewhere between £1k  - £2k below their earnings threshold.

Because of the nature of our daughter's autism, she is unable to gain employment or work long enough hours in order to meet their earnings threshold.
Would being turned down by the agent for a tenancy renewal be means for a case under the Equality Act 2010 of indirect discrimination based on her disability?

housebuyer143

theyiddo said:

Hi all - not sure if this is the right section for this query but thought I'd ask in case any of you out there might have better understanding knowledge of the Equality Act 2010 with regards to housing.

My wife and I managed to find a house close to our own for our autistic daughter to rent. For the 1st year, as she had just left college, was not working and had just started to receive Universal Credit, my wife and I agreed with the landlord's agent to pay 12mths rent up front, and we were both guarantors on the tenancy agreement as well.

Our daughter is in the process of renewing the tenancy, and we simply cannot afford to do the same again (i.e. pay 12mths up front), however our daughter is working part-time and receiving UC. We explained this to the landlord's agent, and they said this was fine and we'd once again we'd have to be guarantors. We agreed and subsequently passed the agent's assessment on that, but the agent is now stating that our daughter has failed the assessment, because her earnings (PT employment + UC), is somewhere between £1k  - £2k below their earnings threshold.

Because of the nature of our daughter's autism, she is unable to gain employment or work long enough hours in order to meet their earnings threshold.
Would being turned down by the agent for a tenancy renewal be means for a case under the Equality Act 2010 of indirect discrimination based on her disability?

Firstly you do not need to renew the tenancy. If you don't it will automatically go into a monthly rolling contract and theoretically she could pay monthly. 
I would maybe advise the estate agent you wish to continue to be guarantor while the agreement goes periodic. 

The landlord however doesn't have to agree to this and could issue an eviction notice but most landlords would probably give her a chance with you as the guarantor. They could evict her for any reason, they don't need to give one so will be hard to say it was 100% because of the benefits. 

If the landlord wants her to leave he will need to issue 2 months notice and then take court action so don't feel like because the agent says she hasn't passed references that she needs to move out at the end of the current contract. That's simply not true.

theyiddo

Sorry - to clarify. For the 1st year, it was just myself as guarantor, then for the renewal when we explained our daughter would never be able to work full time etc and unlikely to meet their criteria, the agent said both my wife and I would need to be guarantors this time on her tenancy agreement, which we agreed to, with our daughter paying monthly rather than the 12mths up front we paid for the first year.

Gycraig

Just ignore them and carry on paying monthly ? She already has a tenancy she doesn’t need to sign another one. 

theartfullodger

Thanks to Thatcher's iron handbag of the 1988 Housing Act a landlord requires NO REASON AT ALL to evict a tenant using the "section 21" process.

Unless daughter gets a bald statement from agent or landlord stating a daftly worded reason to evict (eg disability, race, religion..) then I doubt she'd have a case, sorry.

Most landlord discriminate (legally) against prospective tenants - eg those with evidence of not paying rent in-full & on-time, not having sufficient income or causing damage at previous properties.  

For an independent 2nd opinion get her to 'phone Shelter, the experts in landlord/tenant matters, on their free helpline 0808 800 4444. See
https://england.shelter.org.uk/get_help/helpline

Best wishes & good luck.

propertyrental

theyiddo said:

//////

My wife and I managed to find a house close to our own for our autistic daughter to rent. For the 1st year, as she had just left college, was not working and had just started to receive Universal Credit, my wife and I agreed with the landlord's agent to pay 12mths rent up front, and we were both guarantors on the tenancy agreement as well.
Wow. Usually it's one or the other, not both!

Our daughter is in the process of renewing the tenancy, and we simply cannot afford to do the same again (i.e. pay 12mths up front),
then don't. Does her tenancy agreement say rent is £X per month, or £Y per year?

however our daughter is working part-time and receiving UC. We explained this to the landlord's agent, and they said this was fine and we'd once again we'd have to be guarantors.
Strange - you already are guarantors!
 We agreed and subsequently passed the agent's assessment on that, but the agent is now stating that our daughter has failed the assessment, because her earnings (PT employment + UC), is somewhere between £1k  - £2k below their earnings threshold.
No need for her to 'renew'. She can simply stay on the the existing tenancy agreement beyond the fixed term.
No need for you to renew- Read your guarantor agreement. I bet it says it continues till the tenancy ends (ie your daughter vacates NOT when the fixed term ends.

....

Ignore the discrimination issue. Irrelevant.
Ignore the tenancy renewal- just stay.

Read

Post 4: Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

_Penny_Dreadful

I agree with the advice above. There is absolutely no need to sign another fixed term contract. Simply let the tenancy become periodic and keep paying the rent. If any landlord goes to the hassle of issuing a Section 21 notice and then going to court for a possession order when there’s a perfectly good tenant who pays the full rent on time each and every month the landlord needs their head read. 

deannagone

They are failing your daughter on affordability checks,  not directly for disability reasons so I doubt you'd be able to make a case for that reason. 

Can your daughter afford to pay the rent?  Really she should have been saving up the rent so she'd have the 12 months up front payment now.  If she can't afford to pay the rent, and you can't, the harsh reality is that she can't afford to live there.  I'm sorry.

You could contact social services and see if they will help, but there are often long waiting lists for help now.  It might not happen in time.  She/you could also try the council for help if the LL does issue a S21 but that can be difficult to deal with when you are autistic.  She'd need a lot of support to get through the process.  I did it, but it was a nightmare process.

How old is your daughter.  Does she already have some sort of support in place?

theyiddo

deannagone said:

They are failing your daughter on affordability checks,  not directly for disability reasons so I doubt you'd be able to make a case for that reason. 

Can your daughter afford to pay the rent?  Really she should have been saving up the rent so she'd have the 12 months up front payment now.  If she can't afford to pay the rent, and you can't, the harsh reality is that she can't afford to live there.  I'm sorry.

You could contact social services and see if they will help, but there are often long waiting lists for help now.  It might not happen in time.  She/you could also try the council for help if the LL does issue a S21 but that can be difficult to deal with when you are autistic.  She'd need a lot of support to get through the process.  I did it, but it was a nightmare process.

How old is your daughter.  Does she already have some sort of support in place?

Our daughter is autistic, with ADHD and dyslexia (all diagnosed), 19 yrs of age, and can only work a very limited number of hours a week because of her conditions. Combined with UC, she can afford the monthly rent - however she does not have excess disposable income equal to the monthly rent, which is what she would have needed if she was to save up over the past 12mths while also paying rent (my wife and I paid up front, and then our daughter transferred the equivalent of the monthly rent to us)

The landlord is actually ok, and is happy for her to stay - its his agents that are being !!!!!! in this instance. It seems to me they are trying to justify charging him about £40pm extra for their premium service. The agent were well aware in advance of her situation, we had had multiple conversations with them about it when initiating the renewal. This is why they said they would require both my wife and I to be guarantors for the tenancy agreement to be monthly payments because our daughter would fail the assessment. After we both passed their assessment, they then turned round and said she had failed and would need to pay in advance again anyway.

Because of her autism...etc, we want her to have the assurance of a fixed tenancy, rather than allowing it to become a monthly rolling tenancy with greater risk of being evicted for no reason.

housebuyer143

theyiddo said:

deannagone said:

They are failing your daughter on affordability checks,  not directly for disability reasons so I doubt you'd be able to make a case for that reason. 

Can your daughter afford to pay the rent?  Really she should have been saving up the rent so she'd have the 12 months up front payment now.  If she can't afford to pay the rent, and you can't, the harsh reality is that she can't afford to live there.  I'm sorry.

You could contact social services and see if they will help, but there are often long waiting lists for help now.  It might not happen in time.  She/you could also try the council for help if the LL does issue a S21 but that can be difficult to deal with when you are autistic.  She'd need a lot of support to get through the process.  I did it, but it was a nightmare process.

How old is your daughter.  Does she already have some sort of support in place?

Our daughter is autistic, with ADHD and dyslexia (all diagnosed), 19 yrs of age, and can only work a very limited number of hours a week because of her conditions. Combined with UC, she can afford the monthly rent - however she does not have excess disposable income equal to the monthly rent, which is what she would have needed if she was to save up over the past 12mths while also paying rent (my wife and I paid up front, and then our daughter transferred the equivalent of the monthly rent to us)

The landlord is actually ok, and is happy for her to stay - its his agents that are being !!!!!! in this instance. It seems to me they are trying to justify charging him about £40pm extra for their premium service.

Because of her autism...etc, we want her to have the assurance of a fixed tenancy, rather than allowing it to become a monthly rolling tenancy with greater risk of being evicted for no reason.

You can't make the landlord renew it for a fixed term if the references have not passed and the agent will no doubt advise him on this.
I understand the reason for security but maybe you can go monthly for 6 months to show them there are no issues and then ask to renew? 

I wouldn't advise a landlord to sign a new 12 month contract with someone who failed the references and has no proven track record of paying monthly and on time. 

theyiddo

housebuyer143 said:

You can't make the landlord renew it for a fixed term if the references have not passed and the agent will no doubt advise him on this.
I understand the reason for security but maybe you can go monthly for 6 months to show them there are no issues and then ask to renew? 

I wouldn't advise a landlord to sign a new 12 month contract with someone who failed the references and has no proven track record of paying monthly and on time. 

However, as the agreement for the past 12mths was in our daughter's name, and there was clearly no issue with payment - there is a proven track record of paying the landlord/agent on time. It just happened to be paid up front last time.