Landlords 'need to consider disabled tenants'

News Category: Legal

Landlords will increasingly have to make sure their properties are accessible for disabled tenants, an industry expert has explained.

John Stanford, a spokesperson for the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation (Radar), said that new rules - like the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 (DDA) - were changing how much landlords and the builders of new properties had to focus on the needs of the disabled.

He said: "The DDA has made it a requirement for people who are providing housing services to ensure that their services don't discriminate against disabled people.

"So they need to make reasonable adjustments to make sure that happens.

"This includes a level approach to the entrance door, doors of appropriate width and ensuring that the staircase is straight not curved [to enable the installation of] a stair lift."

Mr Stanford added that more government regulation on the construction of new properties would improve the situation as it would force builder to make houses which addressed these issues.

"If the government got a move on changing building regulations then it wouldn't solve all the problems at a stroke, but it would obviously make the consideration of basic disabled requirements [the norm]."

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 also makes it illegal for a landlord to discriminate against a tenant because of their disability when trying to rent a property.