What you need to know about Right to Rent

What is "Right to Rent"?

As much as we love fun and games, there are a number of regulatory requirements which landlords and letting agents need to keep up to date with. Yes, it’s definitely not the part of the job we love the most, but it’s one of the most important aspects that we really can’t drop the ball with. Aside from keeping ourselves up to date, we like to keep our tenants and landlords informed too. That way, we have happy landlords with happy tenants. And we have a happy team.

The latest new regulations come into force from the 1st February when we will be required under the immigration act to check that all tenants and permitted occupiers have valid immigration documentation. This means it will become the law for us to check all original documentation, such as passports, IDs and Visas. Nobody will be permitted to move into a property without producing these documents and not providing them could lead to serious consequences.

“Right to Rent” basically does what it says on the tin - prospective tenants will literally have to prove that they have a right to rent. The rules only currently apply to properties in England and our team will be working alongside a provider who will be compiling these checks from the 1st February for all our tenants and occupiers on behalf of our landlords.

For anyone not familiar with the jargon, we just need to know that our tenants are who they say they are, as not just anyone has the right to rent a property here in the UK. Whilst we think our tenants are superstars, these new rules are designed to ensure landlords, tenants and agents are fully protected and stay on the right side of the law.  

What are my "Rights to Rent"?

It may seem like a lot of information to take in, so to make it a little easier to get your head around, we’ve broken down the key facts that will make the rules surrounding Right To Rent that little bit clearer –

- The rules will apply to almost all residential tenancies. Some exemptions include social housing and halls of residence.

- It currently only applies to new tenancies (from 1st February), but this is subject to change.

- Those who have a permanent right to rent in England include British citizens, EEA (European Economic Area) nationals and Swiss nationals. There is a full list of those who have an ‘unlimited right to rent’ available here.

- Tenants subject to these additional checks are required to pay a fee – please ask us for further details.

- Landlords using a property management company can expect agents to check these documents, so they don’t need to worry about chasing tenants for the correct information.

In a nutshell, it’s really important to comply to these new rules whether you are a tenant, landlord or a letting agent. Agents not checking documents is just as bad as tenants refusing to supply them so everything needs to run smoothly to ensure everyone is happy at the end of the process and everyone complies with the law.

If you do need some more information, you can get a full rundown of the requirements here, or speak to us at Ascend about how Right to Rent affects you. We ensure all our landlords are up to date with the latest regulations and do all the property checks and paperwork for them, so they can be rest assured that everything is taken care of with their property and tenant in safe hands. Working with Ascend is a breeze (if we do say so ourselves) so call us on 0161 637 8336 to find out more about working with us.