Guide · Tenancy-Law Duties
Right to rent checks: the basics landlords get wrong
Right to rent is the immigration-status check that England — and England only — requires before a residential tenancy is granted. It's a duty with three traps: geographic (applying it where it doesn't run, or missing it where it does), procedural (checking the wrong things or keeping no record), and legal (discriminating in the name of caution). The basics, carefully.
Tenancy-Law Duties
Where and to whom does the scheme apply?
England only: the scheme does not operate in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, and cross-border landlords should resist exporting the habit. Within England it applies to residential tenancies granting occupation as an only or main home — and the check covers all adult occupiers, not just the named tenants, which is the detail that catches house-shares and families.
The duty sits with the landlord but can be transferred to an agent by written agreement — genuinely transferred, with the agreement saying so, not assumed because an agent exists. Whoever holds the duty holds the penalty exposure; the paperwork should make the allocation unambiguous.
Tenancy-Law Duties
What does a compliant check involve?
Establishing, before the tenancy starts, that each adult occupier has the right to rent: examining acceptable original documents in the holder's presence, or using the Home Office online checking service with the occupier's share code, or — for certain document types — checks via certified digital identity routes. The check is of the person against the evidence, contemporaneous, and dated.
Follow current official guidance for the acceptable-document lists and methods, because the mechanics are administered and updated: the durable principles are check everyone, check before occupation, use a prescribed route, and record what you saw and when. Any process resting on 'they seemed fine' or a WhatsApp photo of a passport is not a check.
Tenancy-Law Duties
What records must be kept?
Copies of the documents examined (or the online check result with its reference), dated, retained for the tenancy's duration and a period after it ends — the record is the landlord's statutory excuse, the thing that answers a penalty notice. No record, no excuse, regardless of what was actually examined on the day.
Store them with the tenancy bundle but mind the data: immigration documents are sensitive personal data, held for a defined purpose and period, secured accordingly. The same file discipline that serves compliance serves data protection — one location, access-controlled, destroyed on schedule.
Tenancy-Law Duties
What are follow-up checks and when are they due?
Occupiers with time-limited permission require a repeat check — before the earlier of the permission's expiry or the statutory follow-up point. Diarise it from the first check's evidence: the expiry date on the document or online result is the calendar entry, and the compliance calendar that tracks certificates absorbs it naturally.
If a follow-up check shows the right has lapsed, the scheme prescribes the route: a report to the Home Office, which preserves the landlord's position while the situation resolves. What the scheme never licenses is self-help eviction — possession still runs through lawful process, and immigration status changes none of that.
Tenancy-Law Duties
What are the penalties for failure?
Civil penalties per lodger or occupier without a compliant check — at levels raised substantially in recent years and higher for repeat breaches — with criminal liability reserved for landlords who know or have reasonable cause to believe they're renting to someone without the right. The statutory excuse (the compliant, recorded check) is the complete answer to the civil penalty.
The economics mirror deposit protection: the compliant check costs minutes per occupier; the failure is priced per person and per repetition. For portfolio landlords the exposure multiplies across doors, which is the argument for a single written procedure rather than per-letting improvisation.
Tenancy-Law Duties
How do landlords avoid discrimination while checking?
By checking everyone, identically: the same process for every adult occupier regardless of name, accent, appearance or assumptions. Selective checking — 'only where there's doubt' — is precisely the pattern that breaches equality law and the scheme's code of practice, and it converts a compliance tool into a liability.
The code's logic is protective in both directions: uniform checks can't be discriminatory, and a documented uniform procedure defends against the allegation. Landlords should also resist demanding more than the scheme requires — insisting on passports where the lists accept alternatives excludes lawful renters and walks toward the same breach.
Tenancy-Law Duties
What does the clean process look like?
A written procedure: every adult occupier checked before occupation via a prescribed route; records dated and stored with the tenancy bundle; follow-up dates diarised where status is time-limited; agent responsibilities allocated in writing where agents act; the process applied identically to every applicant. One page, followed every time.
Then keep it current: verify the acceptable-document and method lists against official guidance periodically, because this is an administered scheme whose mechanics move. The principles above are stable; the checklists are government's to update and yours to re-read — a task the annual compliance audit absorbs in minutes.
Need the certificate itself?
The Landlord Compliance Bundle page covers cost, process and every UK area we serve.
FAQ
Related questions, answered
What does a your area rental legally need in the bundle?
For most gas-supplied rentals: an annual gas safety record, an EICR at least every 5 years (England, Scotland and Wales), a valid EPC when letting, and compliant smoke and CO alarms. Property-specific extras — HMO fire doors, PAT for supplied appliances — depend on your setup and licence conditions.
My agent manages the property — who is responsible?
Legal duties stay with the landlord even when an agent handles the bookings, unless specific duties are contractually delegated and accepted. Confirm in writing which certificates the agent tracks, and keep your own copies regardless.
How do I keep track of renewal dates?
Anchor everything to the annual gas visit, diarise the EICR expiry and EPC expiry when each certificate arrives, and re-check the alarm evidence at every tenancy change. A single spreadsheet per property with four dates covers the core cycle.
What needs redoing when tenants change?
Alarms must be shown working at the start of the new tenancy (England), the new tenant needs copies of the gas record, EICR and EPC, and a void period is the natural moment to flush water systems and review the legionella assessment. The certificates themselves stay valid to their own expiry dates.
What drives the cost of a compliance bundle?
Property size and appliance count (gas visit length), the number of circuits and installation age (EICR), and how many extras — PAT, legionella review, fire door checks — you add. Bundled pricing is guidance only until the property details are confirmed.
Does the bundle differ across the UK nations?
Yes. Scotland adds interlinked alarm standards and Repairing Standard checks; Wales runs on the Renting Homes framework with its own electrical and alarm rules; Northern Ireland has no general EICR duty for private lets. A good bundle is assembled per nation, not copied from England.
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Ready to act on this? The pillar page covers the certificate end to end, with every UK area linked: Landlord Compliance Bundle.