Right to rent problems – how your tenancy agreement can protect your position

With the massive increase in penalty fines for ‘right to rent’ breaches (discussed here) landlords need to do what they can to protect their position.

Your tenancy agreement can help here.

Limiting occupiers

Although you cannot prohibit tenants from having guests stay (within reasonable limits), you can make it clear in your tenancy agreement that:

• Only the named persons in the tenancy agreement can occupy the property as their home – then make sure to check with tenants who will be living at the property before the tenancy agreement is signed, and name all permitted occupiers in the tenancy agreement as well as the tenants
• The number of  people living at the property must not exceed a given number (this is also important where your property is an HMO and your license only permits a certain number of occupiers)
• The tenants must not allow anyone other than those named in the tenancy agreement to live at the property without your permission in writing

Then so long as you have ‘right to rent’ checked all the named individuals in the tenancy agreement (and right to rent check any new occupiers if you are minded to grant permission), you will have a statutory excuse if the Home Office find unauthorised persons living at the property.

As you will have done all that you can to prevent this happening.

Making the tenancy agreement conditional

You should also make it clear if tenants sign the tenancy agreement before any right-to-rent checks have been carried out, that the tenancy is conditional upon the satisfactory right-to-rent checks being carried out.

And finally

If you follow this advice:

• If the Home Office find any unauthorised occupiers at the property you will be able to prove that you are not responsible, and
• You cannot be forced to allow a tenancy to proceed if the proposed tenants do not allow you to right to rent check them – even if the tenancy agreement has been signed.

All the Landlord Law tenancy agreements provide for these clauses, along with other clauses designed to protect your position and prevent you from being found in breach of regulations.

Find out more about the Landlord Law tenancy agreements here.