Legal help, services and support for private residential landlords
A right to rent check is a legal obligation that landlords or letting agents must carry out before confirming a prospective tenant into their property.
The ‘right to rent’ check is to ensure that the tenant can legally rent within the UK. For UK nationals, this is as simple as showing some identification, such as a passport to prove this.
Pre-Brexit, nationals from European Union, EEA & Switzerland would be in a similar position to UK citizens, whereby they would only need to show their passport or national identification card. However, with Brexit, this was always set to change.
No, the process is still the same. However, after 31 August 2021, EU/EEA & Swiss nationals will now need to prove their right to rent through their immigration status rather than their national identity.
Probably not a lot. The government has provided a settlement scheme for those who are already in the UK as a way for people already in the UK to continue living after the cut off point (For more info click here).
People who have settled or pre-settled status will be given evidence by the government that they have the right to rent within the UK. These citizens will be confirmed on the .gov right to rent website (found here).
Landlords will just need to be aware of this change and know that just being an EU/EEA citizen no longer guarantees a person the right to rent.
With all that being said, note that this change was meant to be in force on 1 of July 2021, with the Covid pandemic delaying this for a further two months. While currently, the changes will take place on the 31 of August, this is not ‘set in stone’.
Members can find all our content on right to rent issues here.
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