Concern has been voiced that Home Office guidance on immigration checks that was issued, withdrawn and reissued without change in the space of 24 hours, will lead to confusion.
Lisa Simon, pictured below, head of lettings at Carter Jonas, said: “Not for the first time, landlords and lettings agents have been left confused by Government plans for them to become partly responsible for policing immigration.
“We have all been aware for some time that, come October, we would have to be responsible for checking tenants’ immigration status, but new Government guidance leaves things cloudier rather than clearer.
“The guidance that was issued first on August 7, withdrawn in the early hours, and then reissued a short time later on August 8, appears to have watered down the requirements and speaks only of an introduction ‘in late autumn 2014’ for a trial area, following which the scheme may be rolled out more widely during 2015.
“But there is no clue as to where that area will be.”
As reported in Eye, the pilot area is due to be announced next month, along with the publication of draft codes of practice, guidance, online resources for making the checks, and how to actually conduct a check.
She said: “It doesn’t leave enough time for preparation and, because no-one knows where implementation will be, the whole industry must remain on standby.
“No landlord or letting agent can be sure they are off the hook temporarily because they are not in the launch area or permanently because the latest guidance also implies that rolling out the checks more widely may not happen.
“The Home Office is setting up a phone line for checking difficult cases that promises a response within 48 hours – if this is not achieved then the lettings agent or landlord will escape a penalty. But how realistic is it to promise a 48-hour turnaround for an untried system in an era of civil service cutbacks?
“However, perhaps the most worrying aspect of the guidance from the Home Office is the note at the end: ‘August 2014 – All information in this factsheet was correct at the time of publishing but is subject to change.’
“So even though the lettings industry has guidance, we have no confirmation of what is to come.”
The Home Office factsheet can be found at:
One can see the first pitfall immediately – "the right to rent checks will only apply to new tenancy agreements. Existing tenancy agreements are unaffected and landlords will not be required to carry out retrospective checks."
Superstrike springs to mind.
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