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Chetal Patel
Partner
New legislation, in force since 2 November 2020, has introduced new measures to modernise the ‘Right to Rent’ checks required by landlords and letting agents, intended to simplify the process of carrying out those checks and for individuals to demonstrate their right to rent in the UK.
Partner
Senior Associate
In our article of 17 June 2020, we discussed how the 2014 Immigration Act introduced the ‘Right to Rent’ in the private residential sector and that in April 2020 the Court of Appeal found the scheme justifiable as a means of immigration control. The ‘Right to Rent’ scheme places responsibility on landlords to check that any tenants, age 18 or over, have legal status to reside in the UK.
The government introduced new legislation and a revised Landlord’s Code of Practice for the scheme, both of which came into force on 2 November 2020.
Landlords should not let property for use by an adult who cannot satisfy a right to rent check. As with the ‘Right to Work’ checks for employers, a failure to carry out said checks is not in itself an offence. However, carrying the checks out correctly provides a statutory excuse against a penalty, should a landlord be found to have rented a property to an individual who did not have the ‘right’ to rent it, and therefore mitigates risk.
The Order:
Landlords already benefit from the temporary adjustments to the process due to COVID-19, allowing landlords to make the checks remotely as outlined in guidance published by the Home Office on 30 March 2020.
The new changes are relatively minor but are intended to simplify the evidence collecting process. However the rules still require landlords to effectively operate as immigration officers in carrying out checks on individuals’ immigration status and so landlords will want to review the Code of Practice to ensure that they are not at risk of being non-compliant.
We will watch this space as there are likely to be further changes to the ‘Right to Rent’ rules in 2021, once the new points-based immigration system comes into effect.
You can find out more about how to check your tenant’s Right to Rent at:
www.gov.uk/check-tenant-right-to-rent-documents/how-to-check
www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-landlord-right-to-rent-checks
www.gov.uk/government/publications/landlords-guide-to-right-to-rent-checks
www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-rent-landlords-code-of-practice
www.rla.org.uk/landlord/guides/preparing-landlords-for-the-right-to-rent.shtml
If you have any further questions please do get in touch with Chetal Patel from our Immigration team or Amanda Gray in our Real Estate team who would be happy to assist you further.
This information is necessarily of a general nature and doesn’t constitute legal advice. This is not a substitute for formal legal advice, given in the context of full information under an engagement with Bates Wells.
All content on this page is correct as of November 23, 2020.