Private Rental Sector: Right To Rent Checks And Locking Up Landlords

Summary and implications

With the crisis at Calais and the loss of life in the Mediterranean hitting the headlines almost daily, immigration is a hot political topic. But so is housing. Few other topics feature so frequently on the political agenda. With the government having just tabled the Immigration Bill 2015 and the English Housing Survey having identified that there have never been more private renters in England, the inter-relation between these two politically charged areas is set to intensify.

What's the current position?

Landlords in the West Midlands already have the obligation to undertake "right to rent" checks on prospective tenants (for the detail of what is required - see below).This was part of the pilot scheme which commenced on 1 December 2014. Recently the government announced that, from 1 February 2016, all private landlords in England will have to undertake the right to rent checks. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) recently published its review of the pilot and concluded (among other findings) that: the checks were not being uniformly undertaken in the pilot areas; landlords are confused by their obligations; the checks have the potential to increase discrimination; and the checks are not an effective tool to deter "irregular migration" (not least because the Home Office only served two enforcement notices during the pilot scheme). What are landlords/agents expected to do?

For landlords currently in the West Midlands (or for those wanting to get the necessary procedures in place ahead of the anticipated national roll-out): what needs to be done?

Establish a "right to rent" within 28 days before the tenancy agreement is entered into by confirming that the proposed tenant and all other adult occupiers: are either a British, EEA or Swiss national; or have a "right to rent" - i.e. that the occupiers' immigration statuses are such that they have a right to live in the UK (for the moment at least). The legislation contains a list of documents that the landlord/agent can accept as proving the prospective occupiers' nationality or immigration status (e.g. passport or national identity card, a permanent residence card or a certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen). The landlord/agent will have to see the original document in the presence of the occupier and copy or record the contents of the documents together with noting the date on which the check was carried out.

Such records...