Right to Rent Discrimination: How to Avoid Equality Act Breaches

The Right to Rent scheme creates an inherent tension: landlords are legally required to check tenants' immigration status, but the Equality Act 2010 prohibits treating people differently based on race, nationality, or ethnic origin. Get the balance wrong and you face a discrimination complaint on one side or a £10,000 civil penalty on the other.

The Home Office publishes a specific Code of Practice on avoiding unlawful discrimination when conducting Right to Rent checks, updated for the rules in force since 1 October 2026. Here's what it requires in practice.

The Core Principle: Apply the Same Policy Consistently

Every prospective adult occupier gets checked under the same policy, applied consistently. The appropriate route and evidence can differ: British citizens, Irish citizens, EU nationals, and visa holders may use different prescribed routes depending on their status and documents.

The moment you apply different standards to different people based on how they look, their name, their accent, or where they say they're from, you've crossed into discriminatory territory. Specific prohibited behaviours:

• Selective checking: Asking only applicants with foreign-sounding names to prove their right to rent while accepting British-sounding names without verification
• Demanding specific proof types: Insisting a non-British tenant provide a share code when they'd prefer to show physical documents (or vice versa)
• Additional requirements: Asking some applicants for extra documents beyond what the statutory lists require, based on their nationality or appearance
• Delaying or refusing applications: Treating a non-British applicant's valid documentation as suspicious while accepting equivalent British documentation without question

Document Choice Belongs to the Tenant

When multiple verification routes are available to a tenant, they choose which one to use. A British citizen with a valid passport can verify through a manual check or a certified DVSP — their choice. A non-British tenant with acceptable List B documents and a digital share code can choose either the manual route or the online route.

You cannot mandate that tenants prove their status through a specific method. If a foreign national tenant presents acceptable physical documents and wants a manual check rather than a share code verification, you must process the manual check. Refusing to and insisting they generate a share code instead is potentially discriminatory.

The exception: if a tenant's only available route is a specific one (e.g., they hold a digital-only eVisa with no valid physical documents), then that route is their only option. But the constraint comes from their documentation, not from your preference.

Reasonable Adjustments

Some tenants will struggle with the verification process. Older applicants may not be comfortable navigating the UKVI online system to generate a share code. Tenants with disabilities may find the process difficult. People with low digital literacy may not understand how to access their eVisa account.

The Code of Practice requires landlords to provide reasonable support for these situations. This doesn't mean waiving the check — it means helping the tenant access a route that works for them. Practical options:

• Walk the tenant through the share code generation process during a meeting
• Suggest they call the Home Office helpline for assistance with their UKVI account
• Use the Landlord Checking Service where the tenant's circumstances make them eligible and a standard check cannot be completed
• Allow extra time for tenants who need to resolve account issues or obtain replacement documents

What counts as "reasonable" depends on the specific circumstances. You aren't required to provide translation services or immigration advice. But you also can't simply refuse the tenancy because a tenant's verification is taking longer than usual.

What a Discrimination Complaint Looks Like

A tenant or rejected applicant who believes they were treated unfairly can:

• File a complaint with the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)
• Bring a claim under the Equality Act 2010 in the County Court
• Report the landlord to a local authority if the discrimination involves housing allocation

Discrimination claims are separate from Right to Rent penalties. A landlord can be both compliant with immigration checking requirements and in breach of the Equality Act — the two legal frameworks overlap but don't cancel each other out.

The Home Office has stated explicitly that it expects landlords to conduct checks without discrimination, and that operating the Right to Rent scheme does not provide a defence to a discrimination claim.

The Practical Safe Harbour

The safest approach is mechanical consistency. Create a written process with the same screening policy and evidential standard, use the appropriate statutory route for each person, and apply it consistently to every adult occupier. Don't vary the process based on anything about the individual.

Keep a brief record of the verification process followed for each tenant (which route, what documents, when). If a discrimination complaint arises, your records demonstrate that you applied the same policy to everyone, using the route their circumstances allowed.

The Right to Rent Checks guide includes a pre-tenancy compliance audit checklist designed to ensure consistent, non-discriminatory checking across all occupiers.

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