EU Settled status rules have come into effect, and if you have tenants from Eastern European backgrounds, you may be worried about Right to Rent checks. If you don’t comply,y there are fines of up to £3k.
As of 1st July, if a tenant can’t produce evidence of their continued right to rent, landlords must make a report to the Home Office to maintain their statutory excuse – or face a civil penalty. If a tenant can’t produce any documents or have an appeal, landlords need to request a Right to Rent check from the Landlord Checking service. If the response is positive, this document will establish a statutory excuse, and if this is negative, landlords will need to make a report to Home Office.
Remember you can get an unlimited fine or be sent to prison for renting your property to someone who is not allowed to stay in the UK for more information check out https://www.gov.uk/check-tenant-right-to-rent-documents/how-to-check
There are three steps involved in establishing and maintaining a statutory excuse against liability for a civil penalty:
1. Conduct initial right to rent checks before authorising an adult to occupy rented accommodation
2. Conduct follow-up checks at the appropriate date if initial checks indicate that an occupier has a time-limited right to rent,
3. Make a report to the Home Office if follow-up checks indicate that an occupier no longer has the right to rent.
Following the introduction of ‘The Immigration (Residential Accommodation) (Prescribed Requirements and Codes of Practice) (Amendment) Order 2020’, landlords can conduct a Home Office online right to rent check to establish a statutory excuse against a civil penalty. Landlords can do this by accessing the Home Office online right to rent checking service ‘Check a tenant’s right to rent’ on GOV.UK. Not all prospective tenants, or tenants, will have an immigration status that can be checked online. The online service will be available on GOV.UK from 25 November. Currently, the Home Office online checking service supports checks in respect of those who hold:
• a current biometric residence permit;
• a current biometric residence card; or
• status issued under the EU Settlement Scheme
• status under the points-based immigration system
While the landlord may choose to encourage use of the Home Office online checking service and may support individuals in doing so (e.g. by providing access to hardware and the internet), they are not permitted to mandate online checks. If an individual does not wish to demonstrate their right to rent using the Home Office online checking service, even if their immigration status or documentation is compatible with the service, the landlord should conduct the manual check.
The service works based on the prospective tenant first viewing their own Home Office right to rent record by using the ‘Prove your right to rent to a landlord’ service. They may then choose to share this information with the landlord by providing them with a ‘share code’, which, when entered along with the individual’s date of birth, enables the landlord to access the information. The prospective tenant or tenant may provide this to the landlord directly, or they may choose to send this via the service, in which case the landlord will receive an email from right.to.rent.service@notifications.service.gov.uk.
Landlords must access the service using the landlords page on GOV.UK, entitled ‘Check a tenant’s right to rent’ in order to obtain a statutory excuse. It is not sufficient to view the information provided to the tenant, or prospective tenant, when they view their profile using the tenant’s part of the Home Office online right to rent checking service. Just doing this will not provide the landlord with a statutory excuse.
We know this is all complicated but get in touch with us to make sense of it all www.mylandlordcares.co.uk