Since To Rent rules were introduced in 2022, the Home Office has fined 405 landlords for neglecting to meet their obligations. So, exactly what do the guidelines require and just how can you comply?
Under the Right to Rent scheme, landlords are required to check whether potential tenants possess the to live in the united kingdom. A lot more than lb265,000 in fines happen to be levied for breaches of those rules, new figures show.
Which? explains the fines that have been handed out to date, and just how you are able to follow your obligations like a landlord.
Over 400 To Rent fines
Right to book was first implemented in February 2022. And in that first year alone, 102 fines were issued to landlords, according to Home Office figures reported through the Press Association.
Penalties hit an optimum in 2022, with 264 landlords facing an excellent. This trend now appears to have slowed up though, with only 39 fines issued between January and March 2022.
The graph below shows how fines have been issued in the last two years.
In total, lb265,000 continues to be collected through the Home Office to date – averaging lb654 per landlord. Exact figures on individual fines have not been released.
What penalties does apply?
The amount you may be fined for a breach of Right to Rent rules depends upon the type of accommodation you’re providing and whether it’s your first offence.
Fines will apply should you:
The amounts you may be designed to pay are positioned out below:
| Types of accommodation | Amount for first-time penalty | Amount for further penalties |
| Lodgers in a private home | lb80 | lb500 |
| Tenants in rented home | lb1,000 | lb3,000 |
You can resist a penalty within 28 days if you believe the calculation is incorrect, it shouldn’t affect you, or you made the right checks.
If you rent to someone who you know – or who you have ‘reasonable induce to believe’ – is incorporated in the UK illegally, the penalties tend to be steeper. In such cases you can face a limitless fine or up to 5 years in prison.
What do the rules require?
You need to prove that you have checked your tenant’s immigration status before they moved in.
The obligation is on the landlord to ensure the check is done, although if you use a lettings’ agent it will be part of their responsibility.
How the checks work
You have to ask any adult living in the home to provide original documents that prove their to live in the united kingdom.
These documents should have photos that match the tenant, and really should show that their to stay in the united kingdom has not expired.
To prove you’ve fulfilled your obligations, you have to make a photocopy (or high-quality photograph) from the documents, including all relevant passport pages and each side of the residence permit. These documents should be kept for the time tenants rent from you, along with a year.
You will discover more about doing a check on the government’s Right to Rent page.
It’s vital that you remember that many people might be allowed to live in the united kingdom even though they don’t hold a UK or EU Passport, or perhaps a biometric residence card – recent headlines about Commonwealth migrants caught up in the Windrush scandal being just one example.
If you’re not sure if a tenant has the right to rent a property, you can use the government’s step-by-step checking tool.
In certain cases, tenants might not have their documents because the Office at home happens to be processing them. In that case, you can consult the landlord’s checking service.
