If you’re an estate agent or landlord and you don’t yet know whether your tenants have a right to rent from February of next year, you’ve come to the right place. It’s important to know what rights your tenants have and how this may affect your rental properties. This article will explain what ‘Right to Rent’ means, why it matters to you and what you need to do to ensure that your tenants’ rights are respected, to protect you and them.
What is Right to Rent?
Essentially, right to rent means that landlords will need to check their tenant’s right to live in the UK before being able to rent to them. This means checking the tenant’s identity documents to determine if they are living in the UK legally. The Right to Rent scheme was introduced through the Immigration Act of 2014 and has been piloted in the West Midlands since December of 2014. The Home Office has said that “the scheme has been designed to make it straightforward for people to give evidence of their right to rent and a range of commonly used documents can be used.”
The right to rent checks must be undertaken by a landlord or estate agent at least 28 days before the start of a new tenancy for all tenants aged 18 and over and for all types of tenancy agreements, both written and oral. The checks do not have to be made for certain kinds of accommodation. One example is if the tenancy is in accommodation involving local authorities such as accommodation provided by local authorities to someone who is homeless or threatened with homelessness. Social housing, care homes, hospitals and hospices with continuing healthcare provision are also exempt. The tenants of hostels and refuges, as well as someone stationing their mobile home on a site to use as their only home do not have to be checked. Neither do the beneficiaries of tied accommodation provided by an employer to an employee, student accommodation or leases which grant occupation of 7 years or more. All of these forms of accommodation are exempt and do not warrant right to rent checks. It is important that you as an estate agent or landlord know which exemptions your tenant might fall under so that you do not illegally demand a background check of them.
How to Make a Check
The procedure for making a right to rent check is simple and involves a small number of steps. First, check that the tenants are 18 or over and that they will live at your property as their only main home. A property is generally the tenant’s main home if they will live there most of the time, if they keep their belongings there, if their partner or children also live with them there, if they’re registered to vote at the property or if they’re registered with their doctor using that address.
Then check their original documents that allow them to live in the UK. Various documents can be used to show this. A passport or identity showing that the holder is a British citizen or citizen of the UK, British Colonies, the EEA (European Economic Area) or Switzerland. A document issued by the Home Office showing that the tenant is allowed in the UK indefinitely, or exempt from immigration controls. A certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British Citizen. Certain documents are acceptable in combination, such as any two of these documents: a birth certificate, a letter from the government or police force, evidence of current service in the UK armed forces, a letter from a UK higher education institution confirming student status, a current full or provisional UK driving licence, benefits paperwork issued by MRC, local authority or a Job Centre Plus.
These documents must be checked that they are genuine and belong to the tenant, with the tenant present. Finally, copies of the documents must be made with a record of the date of the check.
Right2Rent
Some landlords have expressed reservations about right to rent checks. In the pilot scheme in the West Midlands, some have reported that they feel uncomfortable with asking tenants for documents as they do not want to be perceived as invasive. Neither do they want to be saddled with the legal burden of ensuring that their tenants are in the UK legally. Demonstrating the right to live and work in the UK can be difficult given the array of legal documents available as proof. It may also be unclear how thorough landlords have to be in determining the proof of identity.
If you don’t want to have to go through the process yourself or don’t feel qualified to do so, there are agencies who can provide this service for you. The legal firm Right2Rent is one such agency, providing document checks of tenants for landlords and in so doing taking on the responsibility of confirming right to rent. This can seem prudent to some, as for a small fee it ensures that they are not prosecuted or fined if their tenant is found to be illegally in the UK. However, the process as we have seen is relatively quick and easy, so this is unnecessary for most landlords.
If you are found renting a property to someone who isn’t allowed to stay in the UK because you failed to make the necessary checks, this may result in a fine of up to £3,000. You should go to the UK government’s official website to learn more about right to rent. Some of the powers with which the government can enforce the scheme are currently being debated in Parliament. This means that some of the conditions of right to rent, or penalty for not making the check may change between now and February 2016. Knowing about right to rent protects you from legal action and your tenants from having their rights violated, so it’s imperative to follow right to rent guidelines.
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