Housing discrimination can take many forms. It can sometimes mean discrimination by a public body, such as the government or your local authority due to age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief, race, gender reassignment, being marital status or being pregnant or on maternity leave.
Our team can assess your case and provide you with clear advice on your rights of redress and challenge. We hold a legal aid franchise in this area.
The Equality Act 2010 protects you against discrimination by many different organisations and individuals. This includes landlords and other housing providers, public bodies like government departments and local authorities, businesses and organisations providing goods or services such as estate agents and building contractors.
It is against the law if you’re discriminated because of:
The above are called protected characteristics.
It’s also against the law for anyone to discriminate against you because:
Our housing discrimination solicitors also use the Human Rights Act 1998 to challenge discrimination not covered by the Equality Act.
The Housing Team at HJA have provided their expert advice to many of our service users in housing crisis, and have handled their cases with respect, care and determination. They have worked with women, often at the most difficult moments in their lives, to give them confidence in their rights to safe rehousing, which is a crucial foundation for the journey of recovering from abuse. Many of the women accessing our service would not have access to legal representation or advice, were it not for HJA going the extra mile to ensure the rights of survivors to housing justice. Solace
Head of Housing Law & Partner
“This is one of the leading teams of solicitors in social housing law in England. They regularly take on high-profile and challenging cases in homelessness, allocation of social housing, possession, and disrepair claims.”
Discrimination can take a number of forms:
Direct discrimination
This is treating someone with a protected characteristic less favourably than another person without that protected characteristic.
Indirect discrimination
This is putting rules or arrangements in place that apply to everyone, but it puts someone with a protected characteristic at an unfair disadvantage.
Harassment
This is unwanted behaviour linked to a protected characteristic.
Victimisation
This is treating someone unfairly because they’ve complained about discrimination or harassment
Our team is extremely experienced in bringing claims (and counterclaims) and making sure that you’re treated fairly. This can be seen by our previous challenges. Some examples of the cases we have successfully handled include:
Disability challenges
Gender challenges
Welfare challenges
Depending on your case it’s possible to achieve:
A reasonable adjustment
For example, we’ve represented a tenant who was deaf and her son who was blind. We sought for there to be two different types of doorbells fitted– one audio and one visual to make it easier for them to live in the property.
The adjustment must be reasonable. You couldn’t ask your landlord to start making structural changes to a property, for example widening doorways for a wheelchair, but it would be reasonable to ask for a non-fixed ramp to a front door to allow wheelchair access.
Changes to a policy or practice that will stop the problem happening again, or happening to someone else
For example, we could obtain changes to a local authority’s housing allocation scheme to make it fairer, not only for you but for other people who face the same challenges that you do.
An apology
Many of our clients simply want the discrimination to be acknowledged and to receive an apology.
For the discrimination to stop
This is going to be a priority if the discrimination is ongoing.
Compensation
Compensation could be available if you’ve been distressed, upset or have lost money as a result of the discrimination.
I am grateful to you that you took all of the stress and restored everything for me.
In a claim for discrimination related to housing you could get compensation for:
Examples are: the cost of temporary accommodation, storage costs, removal costs, lost wages if you had to take time off work, the cost of replacing any damaged items, etc. You must keep receipts or invoices for any extra expenses, as you will need these as evidence.
You’ll need to show that you’ve tried to minimise your financial losses, known as ‘mitigating your losses’. You could do this by showing, for example, you found alternative accommodation or went to stay with friends or family.
INCORRECT BANDING: We settled a claim, pre-issue, on behalf of a mother whose children have significant disabilities, mental health conditions and learning difficulties and were in unsuitable housing. The mother had submitted a wealth of medical evidence supporting the urgent need for her children to be moved for their health and welfare, but was consistently placed in incorrect banding under the allocations policy, meaning she didn’t have enough priority to be allocated a new, suitable home. We threatened a discrimination claim and negotiated with the other side, as a result the client was placed into the top band and moved into a new home, which she and the children are very happy with, within 2 months.
Outcome: Suitable home and compensation
Yes there are strict time limits and a claim must be brought within 6 months less one day of the act you’re complaining about. The court can allow a claim outside the time limits, but only if it considers it just and equitable to do so.
If it is a continuing act then the time only begins to run when the last act is completed.
Yes you could complain directly to the person or organisation or look at alternatives such as mediation.
Yes the court will expect you to send your landlord a letter of claim and allow your landlord to respond before you issue a claim. You might well be able to resolve the matter at this stage.
Hodge Jones & Allen’s housing solicitors are recognised by Chambers & Partners as one of the leading firms in the field. We are also noted by Legal 500 for our depth of expertise and our compassionate, client‑focused approach. You can be confident that our team is highly experienced in managing even the most complex and challenging housing law matters.
Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors is proud of the many positive testimonials that we receive, reinforced by our ‘Excellent’ rating on Trustpilot. Please read through what some of our clients have had to say about their experience with our legal teams.
