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In England, private landlords are obligated to carry out a right to rent check for all adults living in a household when the property is being rented or sub-let. Right to rent checks are also required for lodgers.
So if you’re looking to privately rent out property in England, then understanding right to rent checks is a must. Otherwise, you could face a criminal conviction if it’s found that one of your tenants doesn’t have the right to rent. In this article, we’ll be explaining exactly what right to rent is, which tenants need checking, what accommodation types are exempt, how to carry out right to rent checks and what happens if you don’t perform these checks, as well as answering a handful of right to rent FAQs,
Note: The right to rent scheme doesn’t apply in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. The following advice and information is for England only.
Having the right to rent means that a tenant has the legal right to rent a property from a landlord.
The following people have the right to rent:
Some undocumented Commonwealth citizens may also have the right to rent.
In the next section, we’ve gone over the other relevant types of tenants – those with a time-limited right to rent and those with no right to rent.
All tenants and lodgers in England need to be checked – it’s a form of discrimination to only check people who you don’t think are British.
Anyone who falls under one of the following categories will have a time-limited right to rent:
When a person has a time-limited right to rent, the landlord will need to carry out an additional check to see if they still have the right to rent in 12 or so months. If the landlord finds out that the tenant no longer has the right to rent then they’ll need to report these findings to the Home Office.
A person doesn’t have the right to rent if they have no immigration permission and don’t have an outstanding application with the Home Office. In certain cases however, the Home Office may grant permission to rent.
The Home Office states: “A person without leave who is looking to take up a new tenancy can enquire whether they have permission to rent through their established contact points within the Home Office, such as at a reporting event, interview appointment or through the team dealing with their cases”.
You don’t need to check the right to rent status of tenants living in the following types of accommodation:
Here are the steps you should follow when carrying out right to rent checks:
You can also use this link to carry out right to rent checks: https://www.gov.uk/view-right-to-rent
You should use this service to check a tenant’s right to rent in England if you’re the landlord, an agent acting on behalf of the landlord or a tenant who is subletting.
You’ll need the tenant’s date of birth and ‘share code’. This code will be emailed to you or given to you by the tenant.
If a tenant’s right to rent has expired or is about to expire, then the landlord should immediately issue a report on GOV.UK. This report should contain the following information:
Following this, if the Home Office sends the landlord a Notice of Letting to a Disqualified Person or any additional checks shows that the tenant/lodger no longer has the right to rent, then the landlord must begin the eviction process.
Under new rules, landlords and letting agents who fail to carry out right to rent checks can be convicted of a criminal offence.
These convictions can come in the form of a fine – up to £3,000 per tenant without the right to rent – as well as unlimited criminal fines and a maximum prison sentence of five years.
The Code of practice on illegal immigrants and private rented accommodation will help ensure you comply with these new rules when it comes to renting out your property.
Landlords and agents don’t need to check the right to rent of existing tenants who moved in before the requirement to carry out checks was introduced in that property location area. If the tenancy is renewed between the same parties and at the same property without a break, then there still isn’t any requirement to conduct checks.
You should check whether a lodger has the right to rent before allowing them to move in. Whoever sub-lets a property also needs to check that the person they’re sub-letting to has the right to rent. Whoever is sub-letting can agree in writing with their landlord that they’ll be responsible for the checks. This responsibility can be transferred to the landlord if needed. If the landlord agrees then both parties should keep written evidence of the agreement.
An agent can carry out checks on behalf of a landlord. In this case, the landlord needs to keep a written agreement that makes it clear whether the agent is also responsible for any follow-up checks.
Landlords and agents don’t need to check the tenant’s children, but they should know whether or not they’re under 18 when the tenancy begins and keep a record of this. Further checks aren’t required if the child turns 18 during the tenancy. The only exceptions to this are if the tenancy is renegotiated or a repeat right to rent check is needed.
It isn’t always convenient or practical to check the documents of someone who is moving into the property before making the tenancy agreement. For example, somebody currently living overseas who is looking to arrange accommodation before moving. In this case, a landlord or agent can enter into a conditional tenancy agreement. This is an agreement to rent to that person, provided they can produce right to rent evidence before they move in.
Resooma is on a mission to add trust and transparency to the lettings market and can help agents and landlords get more qualified leads and better tenants. Request a callback to learn more about listing with Resooma.
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