Anti-Discrimination Strategy
11 Jun 2026The RRA 2025 brings greater fairness to the rental process by preventing discrimination against people on benefits or with children. It requires agents to be fully transparent and impartial in their selection process, posing new challenges to maintaining full compliance.
The discrimination default
The risks of discriminating are high, and choosing tenants based on gut feeling or personal preferences is likely to backfire. It is now illegal to choose tenants protected by characteristics like race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, being on benefits or having children.
Imagine two sets of applicants for a 2-bed flat: A couple with a child, and two sharers on benefits. They all pass the credit scores, the affordability threshold, the background checks, and have satisfactory landlord references. From a referencing standpoint, they are equally qualified for the place. Based on the material evidence at hand, the only difference between them is that one set of applicants has children, whereas the other is on benefits.
Posed like this, the situation is a conundrum: If the landlord chooses the couple, the two sharers may feel discriminated against, and vice versa. There is no way to decide on these applicants without potentially triggering a discrimination claim.
The fine for the first breach is up to £7K, and £40K for a repeat breach within 5 years. This can go very bad, very fast.
The pitfalls
One option to avoid the discrimination pitfalls is not to disclose information about protected characteristics to the landlord. Applicants are vetted by the agent based on objective criteria, and those who qualify are presented to the landlord. This could include information like affordability, credit records, references, availability of a guarantor, etc.
To remain neutral, we could disclose their income but not its source. If someone has a child and other applicants don't, this would remain confidential. This potentially provides the landlord with transparent, defensible material evidence against claims.
However, if the agent wanted to influence the landlord's decision, they could include information in the tenant's description that would indicate a preferred choice for the landlord, somehow manipulating the results. This is akin to covert discrimination, and the stakes are too high to allow for interpretation.
The Randomised Selection
To prevent any form of discrimination, even unintentional, one must apply consistent and systematic procedures that leave no room for doubt. Random selection does that.
At Rent Happily, we vet applicants, and once they meet all required criteria, we disclose full information to the landlord, including protected characteristics. To pick the tenant, we use a randomised selection from our account on Random.org. This is completely transparent, and all applicants have the same chance of being offered the rental. By using a third-party app, we:
- Randomise results using third-party algorithm;
- Produce a timestamped audit trail;
- Guarantee results that cannot be manipulated after the event;
- Generates evidence that can be retained on file.
The tenants are informed of the process's neutrality, and the results are recorded in our files to ensure the impartiality of the procedure.
I recommend this to anyone who wants to provide a transparent and safe process in this new renting era.
Boris Drappier
