The Ministry of the Interior has established four new criminal offences that can result in a fine, up to five years in prison, or both for landlords who rent to tenants without the right to rent. Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, some landlords could even receive a fine, a prison sentence and other penalties for not taking steps to remove illegal immigrants from a property. Landlords must check the documents of each adult who goes to occupy the property and carry out follow-up checks in some circumstances. The fines imposed on landlords who rent to tenants who are not in a legal situation will also increase from 80 pounds sterling per tenant and 1,000 pounds per occupant to 5,000 pounds sterling per tenant and 10,000 pounds per occupant in the event of a first offence.
Penalties for repeated non-compliance will increase from 500 pounds sterling per tenant and 3,000 pounds sterling per occupant to a maximum of 10,000 pounds sterling per tenant and 20,000 pounds sterling per occupant. Landlords and agents who knowingly rent their properties to unauthorized migrants will face fines of up to £5,000 per tenant and £10,000 per first-time occupant in the event of an infringement, compared to £80 and 1,000, respectively. Your landlord can only evict you without a court order if no one living in your home has the right to rent. You must receive an eviction notice at least 4 weeks in advance.
Once you have received the participation code, you can check the tenant's right to rent by following the link found here. If the tenant has an unlimited rental right, the verification can be done at any time before the start of the contract. The landlord is not required to carry out a verification of the right to rent by the time the child reaches 18 years of age. Verification of the right to rent must be carried out by anyone who rents private residential housing in England.
Allowing those who don't have a legal right to be in the UK to rent property helps them to establish a stable life here, instead of taking steps to return to their home country. This includes someone who hosts a tenant or sublet part of their home, someone with no right to rent. However, it will not be possible to perform an online verification of the right to rent under all circumstances, as not everyone will have an immigration status that can be checked online at this stage. If the Home Office does not respond within two business days of the request, the landlord can treat the request as if the Home Office had issued a confirmation that the person has the right to rent.
In the case of British or Irish citizens holding a valid passport (or Irish passport card), landlords can use the services of an IDSP instead of carrying out a manual verification of the right to rent, if they so choose. This code explains the steps a landlord can take to avoid liability for a civil penalty if he violates Article 22 of the law, which prohibits the landlord from renting to a person who has no right to rent. Landlords who allow rental of property to immigrants who have no right to be in the UK will face much greater financial penalties in the future. Starting next month, landlords who fail to comply with the right-to-rent regime will face a range of potential penalties, including up to five years in prison.
If the renter considers that he has unlimited permission to reside in the United Kingdom, but cannot submit any of the above documents, he can also establish an unlimited right to rent by presenting two other documents from a list drawn up by the Home Office. Under these circumstances, landlords can prove a person's right to rent before occupying the property, and not before the residential lease goes into effect. The Home Office introduced rent-to-rent checks as part of their efforts to make it harder for people living and working illegally in England.
