Disabled people rent more, move less by choice, and live in the least accessible slice of the housing stock. Only a small fraction of English homes offer even the basic accessibility features — level access, a flush threshold, a downstairs loo — and the rented sector is where the gap bites hardest, because every fix needs someone else’s permission.
What the Equality Act requires of landlords
Landlords and letting agents are covered by the Equality Act 2010. In practical terms:
- They must not discriminate in letting decisions — refusing you, evicting you or giving you worse terms because of disability is unlawful.
- They must make reasonable adjustments to policies and practices, and provide auxiliary aids — accepting rent by a method you can use, providing documents in accessible formats, allowing an assistance dog despite a “no pets” term.
- They cannot charge you for making a reasonable adjustment.
- The one big carve-out: the duty does not require a landlord to alter physical features of the dwelling — that is what the adaptations route below is for.
The assistance dog point deserves emphasis because refusals are so common: “no pets” is a policy, policies must be adjusted, and an assistance dog is not legally a pet. A landlord or agent who refuses is in the same position as the restaurant in our assistance dogs guide — on the wrong side of the Act.
Getting physical adaptations in a rented home
Grab rails, a stairlift, a wet room, a ramp: in a rented property this runs on two tracks at once.
- Funding: the Disabled Facilities Grant is open to tenants — private and social — with the same occupational therapy assessment and the same means-test rules (none for children).
- Permission: you need the landlord’s consent for works — but for disability-related improvements, consent must not be unreasonably withheld. A refusal needs actual reasons; “I’d rather not” is not one. Put the request in writing, attach the OT assessment, and offer the obvious reassurances (professional installation, reinstatement where reasonable).
Social tenants have a stronger hand again: councils and housing associations hold their own adaptation budgets, many operate accessible-housing registers, and a transfer to an already-adapted property is sometimes the faster answer than adapting yours. Ask about all three at once.
The stairlift is fundable. The OT will recommend it. The grant exists. In the rented sector, the whole system can still stall on one landlord’s shrug — which is why the “not unreasonably withheld” rule matters so much.
The Renters’ Rights Act: what’s changing
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is the biggest change to English private renting in decades, with its main provisions coming into force in stages. The headlines that matter most for disabled tenants:
- The end of section 21 “no-fault” evictions. The quiet threat that stopped tenants asking for adjustments — ask for a ramp, get two months’ notice — loses its teeth. Evictions will need grounds.
- A stronger footing for pet requests, with consent not to be unreasonably refused — helpful context for assistance dog disputes, though your Equality Act rights were always stronger than any pet policy.
- A private-sector Decent Homes Standard and an ombudsman for private landlords, giving tenants a complaints route short of court for disrepair and poor treatment.
- An end to blanket “no benefits” bans — bans on renting to benefit claimants, which courts had already found can amount to indirect discrimination, are being outlawed outright. This matters enormously given how many disabled tenants rely on housing support.
Check the current commencement position when you act — provisions arrive in phases — but the direction is set, and “ask for what you need” is finally becoming safer advice than “keep your head down”.
When it goes wrong
- Everything in writing, always. Adjustment requests, adaptation requests, refusals, and the reasons given.
- Agents are liable too — a letting agent who screens you out is committing their own act of discrimination, and their redress scheme (all agents must belong to one) takes Equality Act complaints seriously.
- Free advice: Shelter and Citizens Advice for housing generally; the Equality Advisory & Support Service (0808 800 0082) for discrimination. County court claims carry the usual six months less one day limit.
- Councils can act against harassment and illegal eviction, and tenancy relations officers still exist in many areas.
- Log the wider pattern — if an agent or landlord repeatedly turns away disabled applicants, that pattern is exactly what enforcement bodies and journalists can use. Report it.