The government has announced that from February 1, 2016, all private landlords in England will have to check new tenants have the right to be in the UK before renting out their property.

The ‘right to rent’ scheme was introduced in the Immigration Act 2014 and has already been piloted in the West Midlands; the pilot scheme we are told led to 109 people who were in Britain illegally being identified and five penalty notices being issued to landlords for failing to enforce the checks.

From February all landlords will have to carry out the checks and if they fail to do so they face penalties of up to £3,000 per tenant. The Government says that the right to rent checks are ‘quick and simple’ and that ‘many responsible landlords already do them as a matter of routine’. However, in our experience most private landlords in York and North Yorkshire do not routinely check on a tenant’s nationality and are not familiar with the range of immigration documents held by EU citizens let alone those from outside the EU and will not have the knowledge or training to identify forgeries. Not surprisingly many landlords are very concerned about the additional burden this places on them and the penalties if they get it wrong.

The new rules mean that all landlords will have to check that every one of their tenants has a right to rent, regardless of their beliefs about that person’s origins; this means that “British” people will also need to be checked. The checks must be carried out on all adults who are living in a property as their home, regardless of whether they are named on a tenancy agreement. The checks will have to be made using original documents and in the presence of the holder of the document or with them available by video link. Landlords will also need to keep copies of the original documents.

The Government has also announced that there will be a new criminal offence targeted at unscrupulous landlords and agents who repeatedly fail to conduct “right to rent” checks or fail to take steps to remove illegal immigrants from their properties. Landlords may face a fine, up to five years' imprisonment and further sanctions under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Any landlords concerned about these new measures should contact our property disputes team in York Leeds and Sheffield for further information.

Johanne Spittle is a Director in the property disputes team and a member of York Residential Landlords Association. Johanne can be contacted on (01904) 561425 or Johanne.spittle@lf-dt.com