Right to Rent Checks

In England, landlords must prevent people without legal immigration status from renting homes. In practice this means they must check that someone has the right to rent before letting a property to them. There are different ways to do this, like checking documents manually or using the Home Office online system.

Agents and landlords who knowingly rent properties to unauthorised migrants will face penalties of up to £5,000 per lodger and £10,000 per occupier for a first breach. Repeat breaches could cost them up to £10,000 per lodger and a maximum of £20,000 per occupier.

Right to Rent checks will typically be handled during the lettings application stage, following a lettings offer being marked as accepted. However right to rent details can also be checked and updated directly on a tenancy page.

In the Compliance section of your Task Management page you will see two right to rent tasks, due soon and overdue. These tasks allow you to keep track of any right to rent checks that you need to manage.

On the lettings application page, you will see a tile called Right to Rent.

This tile will show a breakdown of each applicant involved in the lettings application and the option to add the right to rent check details.

For each individual applicant you have the option of choosing permanent right to reside, time limited right to reside or no right to reside.

Depending on the outcome, you will see additional options for entering the details such as the date the check was completed and who by, type of identification, share code (for time limited right) as well as uploading the relevant documentation, for example the applicant's passport or work visa etc.

Once the details are saved, you will always have the option of clicking 'update details' should you need to make any amendments.

If all of the applicants pass the right to rent check, you will see their details update and a green tick showing they passed and you can continue progressing the application.

However if any of the applicants fail the right to rent check, you will clearly see this with a red circle next to their name instead and you will not be able to progress the application and create a tenancy.

Additionally, the option to 'cancel application' will appear from within the right to rent tile, where you can enter a reason as to why the application is being cancelled.

The cancellation reason will then show on the lettings application page.

To view the right to rent details on an existing tenancy, head to the tenancy page and click on the overview tab.

On the right hand side, under 'safety certificates' is the right to rent card where you can enter the tenant's right to rent details, in the same format as you enter on the application page.