What are Right to Rent checks?
All landlords of private rented accommodation in England, or agents working on their behalf, are required to carry out Right to Rent checks for new tenancy agreements to determine whether all adult occupiers aged 18 and over have the right to live in the UK.
Right to Rent checks do not apply in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. However, agents must conduct Right to Rent checks for property in England, even if the agency is based outside of the country.
Since 1 October 2022, prescribed checks must be carried out in one of three ways:
- a manual Right to Rent check applicable to all citizens
- a Right to Rent check using IDVT via the services of an identity service provider (IDSP) but only for British and Irish citizens.
- a Home Office online Right to Rent check for all non-British and non-Irish citizens.
Landlords and agents who can show they have correctly conducted an initial Right to Rent check and any follow-up checks have a statutory excuse against a penalty. If checks have not been carried out in the proper manner, agents or landlords will be liable for a criminal or civil penalty depending on the circumstances.
Our involvement
Propertymark has been part of the Immigration Minister's Implementation Panel going back even before the phase 1 pilot scheme that ran in parts of the West Midlands before being the scheme rolled out across England on 1 February 2016.
We have worked with Government extensively to understand their objectives and have helped to shape some of the areas around the scheme. List of accepted ID, user guidance published on gov.uk, levels of enforcement activity and civil penalties and the methods of evaluation used to assess the effectiveness of the scheme are all areas that we’ve talked to the Home Office about.
The ARLA Propertymark team who are involved in Right to Rent involve Board members who are all experienced practitioners working across the UK. This gives a full range of perspectives and helps to raise a broad range of issues.
The Future of Renting
The Future of Renting features our recommendations to the UK Government and its plans to reform the private rented sector in England. We want to help shape and influence the UK Government’s Renters’ Reforms White Paper which is due to be released in 2022.
Helping members to comply
Our easy to read Immigration Act and Right to Rent fact sheets help break down the legislation highlighting the changes, who it applies to and most importantly what you actually need to do.
Fact sheet: Right to Rent Immigration Checks
Under the Immigration Act 2014, since 1 February 2016, all landlords of private rented accommodation in England have been required to carry out Right to Rent checks for new tenancy agreements to determine whether all adult occupiers aged 18 and over have the right to live in the UK.
Fact sheet: Immigration Act 2016
New agent and landlord offences contained within the Immigration Act 2016 came into effect in England on 1 December 2016. The aim of the Act is to tackle illegal immigration by making it harder to live and work illegally in the UK.
Right to Rent FAQs
We have worked with the Home Office and UK Border Agency to answer the questions that are widely asked by landlords and letting agents regarding Right to Rent.
Useful links
- Right to rent immigration checks: landlords' code of practice
- Right to Rent document checks: a user guide
- Guidance on the Windrush scheme
EU Settlement Scheme
The EU Settlement Scheme was introduced by the Home Office in 2019 as a way for EU citizens to apply for a pre-settled or settled status within the UK as freedom movement ended with the EU on 31 December 2020 as a result of Brexit. From 30 June 2021, the EU Settlement Scheme no longer accepted new applications for the majority of cases.
Simpler Right to Rent checks for tenants with pre-settled status
The Home Office has made changes to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) designed to simplify the Right to Rent and similar checks for pre-settled status holders. Letting agents and landlords will only need to carry out a check at the beginning of a tenancy.
High Court review
In March 2019, the High Court delivered a verdict in a case brought to them by parties including the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) and the Residential Landlords Association (RLA). Judges ruled that the scheme is leading to discrimination and further evaluation must be carried out before the scheme is rolled out to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The case was raised following the JCWI publishing their report Passport Please which included the statistic that 51% of landlords surveyed said that the scheme would make them less likely to consider letting to foreign nationals
In a written statement made by Caroline Noakes who Immigration Minister at the time responded to the judgement stating the Government disagreed with the decision of the High Court, and has been granted permission to appeal ‘all aspects of the judgement.’
In that response the Government has stated that the Scheme was trialled in the West Midlands, fully evaluated and published in October 2015. The evaluation was made up from 539 responses to online surveys, 12 focus groups, 36 one-to-one interviews and a mystery shopping exercise that involved 332 encounters. The evaluation by the Home Office found no systemic discrimination on the basis of race.
The law was and remains absolutely clear that discriminatory treatment on the part of anyone carrying out these checks is unlawful. And the Right to Rent legislation provides for a Code of Practice which sets out what landlords are expected to do.
Image attribution: "Rt. Hon Caroline Noakes MP Official MP Portrait" used under CC BY 3.0 / Cropped from original