After the results of our survey, Rent Inequality Campaign spoke to an immigration solicitor in Manchester.
Mr. Malik Sheikh, owner of Cohesion Legal Service and an immigration lawyer, thinks the Home office should indeed reassess its immigration law.
He said: “Rent inequality applies to all immigrants not only entrepreneurs but Tier 1 visa holders tend to experience more discrimination since landlords and agents do not really understand this of visa specifically.”
Cohesion legal services office in Manchester
Currently, only 20% of immigrant tenants knows their rights and the steps they can follow if they got rejected for an invalid reason. Mr. Malik added that not enough guidance is given for tenants who are new investors and even more for landlords, who don’t have any knowledge regarding Tier 1 visa unless they have rented to an investor before or they know someone who experienced rent inequality.
“Being an immigration lawyer for over than 20 years now, I realised that the main problem is that immigration laws changes all the time giving no chance for lawyers, judges, landlords or even the tenants themselves time to cope.”
When being asked if right to rent policy lead to more discrimination against foreigners Mr. Malik stated: “Right to rent policy definitely made renting system worse and unfair but if you read the policy thoroughly you will notice that it does not give landlords the right to check tenants immigration status it is just being misused.”
“From previous cases I noticed that landlords are not glad with this policy too as they are not trained lawyers. They claim that most of the times they can not differentiate between different types of visas so they take the easy way by not renting to foreigners from the first place.”
An infographic depicting the alarming statistics among links between right to rent policy and rent discrimination against foreigners
“I would advice new Tier 1 entrepreneurs to authorise a specialised solicitor who is aware of their rent rights.”
He adds that the future of immigrants in the UK seems in danger as they are less likely to invest in a country that does not treat them fairly. He also says: “Right to rent policy will be challenged in court next week and I am sure that the parliament will not settle until it gets reassessed or scraped.”
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