Right to Rent comes in on the 1st February. Rushing towards us on Monday. It comes from the Immigration Act 2014.
But what is Right to Rent?
As employers have to check employees have a right to work in the UK, landlords have to check tenants have the right to rent homes from them in the UK.
Which Tenants are affected?
For starters Right to Rent affects only adults not children.
Who should do the checking?
The landlords are responsible, but can pass on this responsibility to agents as long as this is a written agreement. We handle this by covering it in our standard terms of business.
How is this going to work in practice?
You don’t want to discriminate against tenants from different places so do the checks for every tenancy even if you are sure the people are British.
1) Confirm who the adults are who will live at the property.
2) Meet them 28 days before the tenancy starts
3) Check their original documents
4) Take a copy and note when you have seen them. With good records you are good to go.
When Checking there are two tenant groups:
1) Peoples with a permanent right to rent
a. such as a UK citizen or
b. people from the European Economic Area citizens
c. People with indefinite leave to stay – see their visa
2) People with a time limited leave to stay
a. Such as people working in the area for a limited period see their visa for details
In the pilot in the West Midlands which ran from late 2014 there were not many prosecutions and the fines were small averaging £800. But this is likely to increase with new legislation later in the year.
Expect jail sentences and less lenient fines.
It does not currently affect existing tenancies only new ones. Although that may change in future. At the moment people who don’t change tenancy keep the right to remain without the checks.
It does affect the vast majority of tenancies exemptions might be for local authorities, some social housing providers, students in halls of residence and very long tenancies.
Link of list of documents required:
What about the local Scene in Hillingdon?
London Boroughs with Beds in Sheds issues such as Hillingdon, Ealing, Newham, Slough and Redbridge. Expect enforcement action in the area.
