Right to Rent - Does your tenant have a legal right to be renting your property?
As a landlord you have an obligation to check if your tenant has the legal right to rent your property. Research from the Home Office has revealed that Landlords who don’t use a letting agent are the least likely to fully understand their legal responsibilities when onboarding new tenants via the Right to Rent scheme.
The Right to Rent scheme requires landlords of privately rented accommodation to conduct checks on all new tenants to establish if they have a legal right to be in the UK and therefore have the right to rent their property.
The Right to Rent checks have been through many changes in the last three years with COVID-19 lockdowns, the end of freedom of movement due to the UK’s exit from the EU and the introduction of the Home Office’s real time digital systems.
So, what should Landlords be doing?
1) If the applicant has a British Passport then this is proof to Right to Rent, check the original document and copy. No further checks needed.
2) If the applicant does not hold a British passport, then the perspective tenant should be able to provide you with a share code. You will need to input this, along with the tenant’s date of birth on the government website. You will then have instant access to the applicants Right to Rent.
There right to rent will either be a ‘Settled Status’ which means there is no time limit and no further checks need to be carried out, or they could have a ‘Pre Settled’ status. This means the tenants Right to Rent will have an expiry date and you would need to carry out a further check at this time.
You can check your tenants right to rent here: https://www.gov.uk/check-tenant-right-to-rent-documents
If you are unsure if you have carried out the right checks properly or should you require any help or assistance with anything tenancy related please do not hesitate to contact me, Gemma Scott-Davies, Lettings Manager, 014774 321957, gemmascott@mandmprop.co.uk.