How to File Consent or Written Reasons for a Disability-Related Improvement

When consent for a disability-related improvement is refused, Equality Act 2010 section 190 requires a written statement of the reason and refers to a reasonable time. For one qualifying England letting, keep the tenant’s written request and then one written landlord reply: consent with any conditions, or that statement of reasons. Record the dates on both papers. A spoken request is not the written application, and a spoken yes is not the reply.

This file is distinct from ordinary DIY or decoration consent, a pet-request decision, a repair request and a contractor invoice folder. It is an England file for the request and reply described by section 190, not a guide to another nation’s adaptations process.

Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.

First confirm that section 190 describes the letting

The conditions appear together in Equality Act 2010 section 190(1). The tenancy must not be a protected, statutory or secure tenancy. The tenant or another occupier must be a disabled person who occupies, or intends to occupy, the premises as their only or main home. The tenancy must entitle the tenant to make improvements with the landlord’s consent, and the tenant must apply for consent to make a relevant improvement.

If any of those conditions is missing, this section 190 file does not start. In particular, a tenancy that forbids improvements even with consent does not satisfy the entitlement condition. Do not rewrite the term inside this filing exercise, and do not substitute the different procedures that apply to protected, statutory or secure tenancies.

A relevant improvement is one likely to facilitate the disabled person’s enjoyment of the premises, having regard to the disability. Section 190 defines improvement broadly to include alterations or additions to the premises, changes to the landlord’s fittings and fixtures, work connected with services, an aerial and external decoration. An item from that list still has to meet the relevant-improvement test; the label alone is not enough.

The explanatory notes say section 190 applies in England and Wales, but this filing guide is for England. Their example mentions a walk-in shower and a grab rail for a person with mobility problems. Those are illustrations, not a required specification and not a reason to collect a medical report in this folder.

The reply is one of two written papers

Section 190(2) begins where the tenant applies in writing. If the landlord refuses, the landlord must give the tenant a written statement of the reason why consent was withheld. If the landlord neither gives nor refuses consent within a reasonable time, the section says consent must be taken to have been unreasonably withheld. The opened section gives no number of days, so the request date and reply date carry the useful evidence without inventing a deadline.

Conditions belong in the written consent, not in a later phone note. Section 190 says an unreasonable condition is treated as consent unreasonably withheld, and places the burden on the landlord to show that a refusal or condition was not unreasonable. The explanatory notes say matching the colour of bathroom fittings or removing an adaptation when the disabled person moves out might be reasonable. The word “might” matters: those examples are not automatic terms for every request.

Section 190(8) also says the reply rules apply only so far as the lease does not already make provision of a like nature. Read the tenancy before preparing the response. If it requires a freeholder or another person’s consent before the landlord can answer, keep that person’s written consent or refusal with the request. Section 190 itself does not give that third party a separate day count.

Build the request-and-reply file in order

The file should identify the premises, the alteration or addition requested, and why it is a relevant improvement for the person who occupies or intends to occupy the home. It does not need to become a medical dossier. Retain only the request and decision papers needed for this operational record, and handle any sensitive material outside a testing workspace.

Funding does not replace the consent reply

A funding leaflet is not written consent or a statement of reasons. The NRLA adaptations page, last updated 11 September 2024, says landlords are responsible for permission but are not required to fund adaptations, while self-funding is optional. For England it says councils normally fund minor adaptations through social care and major adaptations through a Disabled Facilities Grant. That page gives no grant maximum, so no figure belongs in this file.

The statutory information supplied with tenancy terms is another paper. Paragraph 16 of the 2026 written-statement schedule describes information about section 190 where improvements are allowed with consent. It does not replace the later written request or the landlord’s reply, and the opened schedule page does not provide a commencement date to add here.

The two dated papers close the file

The complete file holds the tenant’s written request and the landlord’s written reply for this home: consent with any conditions, or the written statement of reasons if consent was refused. The date of each paper remains visible. Where the lease required another person’s reply before the landlord answered, that written paper sits beside them. The Act uses “reasonable time” and provides no day count for this rule.

IziRento can store the request and reply. It does not decide consent, draft the reasons, assess disability or apply for a grant; do not upload special-category or irreplaceable documents to the pre-launch testing workspace.