The Right to Rent was brought in as part of the Immigration Act 2014 and landlords are expected to abide by the act.
This law applies to all residential tenancies and all landlords are not permitted to allow an adult to reside in the property unless they can prove that they have a right to live in the UK. Essentially, landlords have to check their identification in order to prove that they are legitimate residents. Atwel James Estate Agents use UKTenantData to assist with this verification, for which additional charges may be applicable.
This is a check that would be the responsibility of the landlord although the checks can be carried out by Atwel James Estate Agents, with the aid of UKTenantData and this will be included in the agreement. It also remains in place should the tenant sublet the property but the check will be their responsibility although the landlord still has the right to carry out the check and information cannot be withheld from the landlord, who would need written confirmation of the status of stay.
The right to rent means that the tenant has a right to rent a property in the UK but should they not qualify then they will not be allowed to rent a property, and if already a tenant they will be asked to vacate the property and be reported to the UK Border Agency. There are two different groups known as permanent right to rent and time limited rights and both have different needs.
Permanent right to rent
- British citizens; European Economic Area nationals (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK); Swiss nationals.
- This consists of those have been granted the right to live in the UK as well as being granted indefinite leave to live in the UK or they could have no limit on the time they are allowed to spend in the UK.
Time limited right to rent
This group consists of those people who are not British citizens, EEA or Swiss nationals who have been permitted enter the UK or remain here for fixed amount of time. They are also allowed to enter or remain in the UK following an Act of parliament, European Union Treaties as well as Immigration Regulations.
For those people who have a permanent right to rent, they are only required to go through one check before their tenancy period begins.
For those who have a time-limited right to rent, the date on which their time limit expires will have to be monitored and this will mean that a check will have to be carried out 28 days before their right to rent expires, more information is available from the ‘Right to Rent’ leaflet, which has been compiled by UKTenantData.
The process for carrying out a check consists of:
- Understanding those adults who will reside in the property
- Request original versions of acceptable documents for all adults
- All documents are checked in their presence
- Copies of the documents will be made and kept along with the date the checks were carried out
