This guide provides advice to landlords, leasing agents, and homeowners on how to perform a rental entitlement check when renting privately. If a landlord rents their property to someone without the right to rent in England, they can be fined up to £3,000 for each tenant or sent to prison. It is important for landlords to contact the Home Office's Commonwealth Working Group for advice if they do not contact the Homeowner Verification Service. It is illegal for landlords or leasing agents to charge a fee for a credit check.
If they do, tenants can report them to Trading Standards. The Home Office introduced right-to-rent checks in order to make it more difficult for people to live and work illegally in England. These checks do not apply in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. Certified Identity Service Providers (IDSPs) are external providers that comply with a government standard for digitally verifying the right to rent of British and Irish citizens who hold a valid passport (including Irish passport cards).
IDSPs offer convenient checks, but not all agents will be able to offer Right to Rent checks through an IDSP (even for this restricted group). Whether this is a suitable option for your lease will depend on several different factors. A list of IDPs can be found on GOV. UK. If digital evidence is not available, tenants can show their original documents to the landlord.
The Joint Council for Immigrant Welfare also runs a confidential helpline for undocumented migrants on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm on 0207 553 7470. They can offer specialized immigration advice on whether undocumented migrants can apply for a permit from the Ministry of the Interior to rent. If during the follow-up the tenant is unable to prove their right to rent, the landlord must inform the Ministry of the Interior using their online form. If some tenants of shared housing are entitled to rent, the landlord must go to court to obtain an eviction notice.
Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the United Kingdom before the end of 1988 (and after January 1, 1997) may not automatically have the right to live or rent in the United Kingdom. All landlords in England are legally required to check the “right to rent” before leasing their property to an adult tenant. If someone living in the property does not have the right to rent, the landlord can evict everyone from the property. For example, some landlords think that they only need to prove the right to rent to people they think are not British. If you came to the UK as part of the Homes for Ukraine or Ukraine Family Scheme program and you don't pay rent because you're living with a host, you don't have to prove that you're entitled to rent. Once you have received the participation code, you can check your tenant's right to rent by following the link here.
Landlords cannot refuse tenants based on race or nationality if they have the right to rent in the UK. If the government informs them that one or more people on the property have no right to rent, landlords must cancel their tenancy and evict tenants or face fines or imprisonment. Otherwise, tenants won't have to use the online service if they can prove their right to rent with an original document. A participation code is a number that tenants can create online and give it to their landlord so that they can verify their immigration status. For a limited-time rental right, verification must be done no more than 28 days before the start of the contract.
