The right to rent scheme implemented by the government came into place on the 1st of February 2016. The scheme aims to ensure that anybody who rents a property from a estate/letting agent in England is legally allowed to reside here.
All adults that will be living in the property as their main residence will need to provide original identification documents. At Belvoir Bury, we will request these documents when an application for a property is submitted. We will then check these documents are genuine and then make and keep colour copies of the document(s). By failing to undertake these checks properly and renting a property to somebody who isn't allowed to rent a property in England we can be fined up to £3000. (A list of acceptable documents can be found in the PDF documents attached).
This new legislation has had it fair share of critics with Kate Palmer of The Telegraph saying how it "places an unfair burden on landlords who may lack the knowledge or skills to check if their tenants are allowed to live in Britain". It is also thought that many independent Landlords don't understand or haven't been fully made aware of the changes. Hilary Osborne of The Guardian says how "Seven in 10 landlords do not understand their obligations" she goes on to say that "the laws that come into force on Monday could cause problems for young tenants and the less well-off, they could also put landlords at risk of being accused of discrimination".
At Belvoir Bury we have been made aware of these new laws well in advance, and along with Belvoir Franchise support we have set our procedures in place to ensure we conform with this new legislation ensuring all our tenants and landlords are protected.
References:
Government Website: https://www.gov.uk/check-tenant-right-to-rent-documents
Hilary Osborne: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/01/landlords-do-not-understand-rules-immigration-checks-association
