The UK High Court has found a scheme which required landlords to check the immigration status of tenants caused landlords to discriminate on the basis of nationality and ethnicity.
The scheme was brought in by the Immigration Act 2014 with a requirement that a landlord needed documentary evidence of the right of tenant or potential tenants to reside in England. If not, the landlord had to perform a ‘right to rent’ check with the Home Office. Failing to do so was a criminal offence, punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.
A case was brought by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), a charity that represents immigrants and ethnic minorities in the UK, when the government sought to extend the scheme the rest of the UK. JCWI argued that the provision breached Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) due to migrants being discriminated against by landlords. JCWI presented evidence that 42% of landlords were less willing to rent to people without a British passport as result of the new legislation, with 25% of landlords refusing to rent to those without a British passport.
In finding incompatibility with Article 8, the Court stated that “the Article does protect one’s right to seek to obtain a home for themselves and their family even if they are eventually unsuccessful, and the playing field should be even for everyone in the market for housing, irrespective of their race and nationality.” On the evidence, the Court held that the legislation not only provided opportunity for landlords to discriminate, it caused them to do so. The Court also criticised the government for failing to justify the scheme, in particular for not having a reliable system in place for evaluating its efficacy. To extend the scheme, the Court stated, would be irrational.
The Home Office has been granted leave to appeal this decision.
Click here for the decision in R (Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants) v Secretary of State for the Home Department.