High Court: Right to Rent does breach human rights
Mary-Anne Bowring 01/03/2019
4442
High Court: RTR breaches human rights
The High Court has ruled today that the government’s controversial Right to Rent scheme breaches human rights law. Right to Rent was introduced by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary, as a key strand of the Government’s increasingly discredited ‘hostile environment’ for illegal immigrants. No one wants to find they are renting their property to someone who is living in the UK illegally. But the problem with the 'Right to Rent scheme' is that it puts landlords, not the Home Office, in the driving seat.”
Who needs to check immigration status of tenants?
Landlords are personally responsible for checking the immigration status of tenants themselves, which is regarded as completely inappropriate by landlord organisations because they could face prosecution if they get it wrong and are found to be renting to someone who has no right to UK residency. Last year, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) brought a case against the government, backed by The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) and Liberty, claiming the policy is incompatible with human rights law because it drives discrimination against non-UK nationals who might be in the country legitimately and British ethnic minorities.
Today, the JCWI got the verdict it was hoping for. The High Court has ruled that the scheme does breach the European Convention on Human Rights and that discrimination by landlords is taking place “because of the Scheme.” The judge, Mr Justice Martin Spencer said that the safeguards used by the Government to avoid discrimination, namely online guidance, telephone advice and codes of conduct and practice, have proved ineffective. He concluded that “the Government’s own evaluation failed to consider discrimination on grounds of nationality at all, only on grounds of ethnicity.” The RLA is now calling on the government to accept the decision, scrap the Right to Rent, and come up with a better way to sensibly manage migration, “without having to rely on untrained landlords to do the job of the Home Office.
Planetrent Properties
info@planetrent.co.uk
0208 0599 550 (for sales)
Under Offer: This term applies to a property where the landlord is considering an offer but remains on the market. It implies that further offers may still be considered until the landlord formally accepts or declines the current offer.
Let Agreed: This term indicates that a landlord has provisionally agreed to enter into a rental agreement with a prospective tenant, pending additional checks and referencing. It doesn't require the prospective tenant to have paid a holding deposit.
Let: This term signifies an established binding rental agreement between the landlord and tenant.
For both lettings and sales, the guidance addresses additional terms:
New On The Market: This term is used for a property not advertised since its last sale or rental. It should only be used for a brief period.
New Instruction: It applies to a property assigned to an agent for marketing recently, even if it was previously listed with another agent without being sold or rented.
New and Exclusive: This term refers to a property that is either new on the market or a new instruction, exclusively available through a specific agent or portal.
New Method of Sale/Let: This term is used when a property is being marketed for sale or rent using an alternative approach to the original advertisement, such as transitioning to an auction or sealed bid.
Reduced: This term indicates that a property's price has recently been reduced. The reduction should be genuine and comply with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute's guidelines on pricing practices.