News
Right to Rent
Wednesday 18th November 2015
The Immigration Act 2014 rules make it mandatory for private landlords and letting agents to check the immigration status of all new adult tenants, sub-tenants and lodgers in order to assess whether they have the "right to rent" in the UK.
The Government has now announced the rules will come into force from 1st February 2016. Find out what this means for you.
If a landlord or agent fails to complete the checks and then rents a property to someone who does not have a valid 'leave to remain' (and therefore does not have the right to rent) they could be fined up to £3,000 per adult by way of civil penalty notice.
The rules were introduced in a pilot area of the West Midlands and the conclusions of this introductory phase have now been published.
The Government has produced an easy to understand infographic on the main points of these new rules which can be downloaded here.
Alternatively you may wish to review the code of practice for landlords which can be downloaded direct from the Government's website here