Ensuring potential tenants are not racially discriminated against

Can injunctions be used to stop landlords using discriminatory letting criteria when finding tenants?

Mr Wilson is considered by some as the largest buy-to-let landlord in Britain, owning hundreds of properties in Kent. A media article in March 2017 reported that he had stated in an email to a lettings agent that one of his requirements for potential tenants was “No coloured people because of the curry smell at the end of the tenancy”.

This case came within our core priority aim – protecting and strengthening equality and human rights laws.

We applied for an injunction to prevent Mr Wilson applying discriminatory letting criteria.

The judge ordered an injunction in line with our draft order, limited to a time period of 3 years - this is the maximum the judge would allow for proportionality reasons. Breach of the injunction is contempt of court, punishable by a fine or imprisonment.

Mr Wilson owns/manages a large number of properties in the Kent area. The injunction prohibits him from having letting criteria restricting the letting to people on the basis of their race, or instructing others to have such criteria. The publicity surrounding the case also means other lessors are aware of the court’s findings and our ability to enforce.