What you need to know about the Right to Rent checks in England.
Landlords and letting agents must check that all adult applicants in England have a right to rent here before they enter into a new tenancy agreement. What do Landlords need to know?
The right to rent check is to "prevent those without lawful immigration status" from renting a property illegally.
Landlords or their agents need to check the right to rent of any prospective tenant intending to use the property as their main home before the tenancy agreement officially starts - and in the 28 days before that start date for tenants with a time-limited right.
UNLIMITED RIGHT TO RENT
Some applicants will have "unlimited right to rent". This covers British and Irish citizens, those with EU Settled Status, and people who have the "right of abode", who have indefinite leave to remain, or simply have no time limit on their stay in the UK.
TIME-LIMITED RIGHT TO RENT
Other applicants will have a "time-limited" right to rent, including those with pre-settled status. For this group of tenants, you'll need to understand how long they're eligible to stay in England and then do a follow up check before that period ends, to make sure you aren't liable for any penalty.
If your tenant loses their right to rent during their tenancy, you'll need to report this to the Home Office.
CONDUCTING RIGHT TO RENT CHECKS
You can use the Home Office Landlord Checking Service to conduct the check. You can request this check by completing an online form. You'll need to keep a record of the certificate of application and should wait until receiving an answer before starting the tenancy agreement.
You'll receive either a positive or negative response from the Home Office on whether your applicant has the right to rent the property or, if the service hasn't considered your request after two working days, you'll receive confirmation that you can let your property to the applicant, valid for 12 months.
Since 6 April 2022, if your applicant has a Biometric Residence Card or is a Permit holder, you can’t check their documents manually. You must use the home office online service.
Applicants eligible for this service are those:
· With a biometric residence card or permit, or an eVisa
· With settled or pre-settled status
· That have applied for a visa and used the "UK Immigration: ID Check" app to scan their ID on their phone
In 2024, there will be a transition from physical biometric immigration documents to entirely digital eVisas, we are yet to learn how this will impact right to rent checks.
Your eligible applicants will need to give you their share code - which they can get on the government's site and will expire after 90 days - and date of birth. You'll need to then enter these details into the online service.
This means that you can then check the photo on the service's profile page against your applicant. You'll then need to save their profile page as evidence of the check.
CHECKING B5JSSK CITIZENS
(those from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea or the USA)
Since 2019, B5JSSK citizens have been able to arrive in the UK via eGate, and therefore have no stamp in their passports for the date of arrival. They will have the right to stay in the UK for six months, but then will need a visa to stay for longer.
You'll need to first check their passports and evidence that they arrived in the UK within the last six months. This evidence could be their boarding pass, travel ticket, booking confirmation - or another document which confirms the date of their arrival in the UK.
The check can be done either in person or over video call but the landlord will need to hold the original documents for the check.
Even though your tenants should have their visa once this 6-month period ends, the right to rent framework requires you to conduct another check before the end of a 12-month period instead, to prove that your tenants have a right to continue renting.
Propertymark advises that "evidence of a correctly administered 12-month check" will give you a "solid basis" to avoid fines.
Should you have any queries regarding the above, or any other tenancy related queries please do not hesitate to contact our office. We are here and ready to help in any way we can.