Before renting a property in England, you must prove your right to rent. Similarly, before a landlord can rent a property to you, they need to establish that you have a right to rent it. The core requirement is to provide satisfactory documents on which to base the right to rent.

Right to rent for tenants

Tenants must produce documents to prove they have the right to rent property in England. The documents required depend on whether you are a British or Irish citizen or were born elsewhere.

British and Irish citizens

Citizens of Britain and Ireland can provide their right to rent in England by providing one of the following:

• a British passport (current or expired)
• an Irish passport or passport card (current or expired)
• a certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen

If you do not have one of these, you can still prove your right to rent by producing further documentation. The options can be viewed on the UK government website.

If you are not a British or Irish citizen

If you are not a British or Irish citizen and wish to rent in England, you must either provide your original immigration documents or a share code issued by the UK government. You can obtain a share code from the UK government website. The share code lets the landlord check if you can rent a property and for how long.

If you cannot prove your right to rent

If you cannot prove your right to rent, you can ask your landlord to request a Home Office right to rent check. That will determine if you can rent in England.

If you are a Commonwealth citizen and are settled in the UK but have no evidence to prove it, you may be eligible to apply to the “Windrush Scheme”. If you can prove:

• You came to the UK from a Commonwealth country before 1973
• Your parents came to the UK from a Commonwealth country before 1973
• You came to the UK from any country before 31 December 1988 and are now settled here.

Right to rent for landlords

Landlords cannot rent a property unless they check that new adult tenants have a right to rent. Landlords only need to do this if the tenancy started after 1 February 2016 in England (or after 1 December 2014 if they are renting property in Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, or Wolverhampton). The landlord must check whether the prospective tenant has an unlimited right to rent, a time-limited right to rent or no right to rent.

Tenants with unlimited right to rent

Tenants with unlimited right to rent come from the following groups of people:

• British citizens
• Irish citizens
• individuals who have the right of abode in the UK
• individuals granted settlement
• individuals granted settled or pre-settled status under the EUSS
• individuals who have no time limit on their permission to stay in the UK

Landlords must either obtain documents from a list of acceptable documents, if carrying out a manual check or arrange for a digital identity verification check. In either case, the landlord must retain the information proving the right to rent for the tenancy duration and one year after its termination. No further checks are necessary.

Tenants with a time-limited right to rent

Those not falling into the previous category may have a time-limited right to rent. They can qualify for the right to rent if they are:

• Individuals with valid Permission to enter or stay for a time-limited period, or time-limited permission under the points-based immigration system.
• Individuals with an outstanding application with the Home Office.

Individuals who have an eVisa can provide a share code to their landlord. Share codes are not available to British and Irish citizens.

Penalties for illegal renting

If you illegally rent a property to a tenant, you can face up to 5 years imprisonment or a fine. This occurs when you knew or had reasonable cause to believe that the person did not have a right to rent in the UK.

You can be fined if you rent property to someone who is not allowed to stay in the UK or if you do not show that you checked their right to rent.

The UK government has published the civil penalty process and the fine levels for first-time and repeat offenders. The fines range from £5,000 for lodgers in private households to £20,000 for tenants in rented accommodation.

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When renting a property in England, you must prove your right to rent, and your landlord must establish that you have a right to rent it. Our article outlines the process.

Landlords – check the details on Right to Rent here, to ensure you don’t fall foul of the requirements.

If you would like any more information relating to this article please contact Gavin Lampert on 020 8221 8062 or at gavin.lampert@bowlinglaw.co.uk

This article is not intended to provide legal advice; it is intended to provide information of general interest about current legal issues.