Two peers are to challenge the Government this week over Right to Rent.
On Wednesday, Lib Dem Baroness Hamwee will move that the commencement order of Right to Rent under the Immigration Act 2014 be annulled.
At the same time, Labour’s Lord Rosser will move that “this House regrets that the Immigration Act 2014 (Commencement No 6) Order 2016, laid before the House on 11 January was laid following inadequate consultation, and asks the Government to undertake a further consultation before the commencement order comes into force.”
Right to Rent – whereby landlords or their agents must check the immigration status of all prospective tenants and those in their households – went live on February 1 in England.
Further roll-outs to the rest of the UK are due, but the schedule has not been announced.
The Residential Landlords Association said it is supporting attempts to get Right to Rent’s commencement order cancelled.
The RLA said that the evidence from the pilot scheme in the west midlands that ran from December 2014 was insufficient to merit the roll-out.
It said landlords had not been sufficiently prepared for the scheme; had not been given the right information; and that UK nationals without a passport would find it “extremely difficult” to access private rented housing.
In a recent survey of almost 1,500 landlords, the RLA found that over 90% had not received any information about Right to Rent, either by email, from an advert, from a leaflet or online, and 72% did not understand their obligations.
The RLA said that tenants would be hit in the pocket, with over a quarter of landlords looking to increase rents to cover the costs of carrying out the checks.
Almost half (44%) said they would only let their properties to people with documents that they were familiar with, while 45% said they would only accept tenants who could provide the required documentation immediately.
The RLA said it fully supported “pausing” the roll-out.
People trafficking is a multi million pound organised crime. How on earth can one expect a landlord or office neg’ spot a forged document which are already around and even better ones will start to appear? Even immigration has trouble spotting forged documents.
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They are not expected to spot a good forgery, only the obvious ones that any reasonable person would probably spot; changed photograph, badly done alterations to passport, names tippexed out (I had one like that ) discrepancies in the age and appearance of the holder.
It all comes down to staff training, the same as any other process in a lettings office.
I honestly don’t know what the fuss is about, most sensible agents have been doing checks like this for years.
And as for landlords complaining they haven’t had any information about Right to Rent, I don’t buy that. They are engaged in the rental industry, its incumbent upon them to keep abreast of what’s happening in that industry not for government to hold their hands. The information is out there, all they have to do is look for it – making sense of it is harder I grant you.
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