The ‘Right to Rent’ scheme has been introduced as part of the Immigration Bill 2014. This is not in Bristol yet, however a regional roll out is planned.
Since December 2014 the scheme has been in force in Birmingham, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton. Landlords and letting agents in the area, since the legislation came into force, have been charged with checking that all adults over 18 living in a property or proposing to live in a property from the 1st of December 2014 onwards, are able to do so. With government information stating that letting a property to applicants that do not have the right to rent could mean fines of up the £3000.00 and in some areas more.
You will be pleased to hear that Sarah Kenny are already ahead of the game, thanks to our longstanding relationship with our conscientious referencing company Keysafe. We obtain ID documents as standard and have the ability to check the identity and immigration status alongside the usual tenant references and have been doing this as part of our service for many years.
This approach to referencing is further enhanced by the leadership of Gareth Fowler managing director of Keysafe; a key advocate for the importance of thorough pre-tenancy checks to confirm a tenants’ ability to live and work in the UK. These checks include specialist verification as to the validity of documents and the use of a national database that tracks and identifies compromised documents or documents that have been used in criminal activity.
Alongside our in-house procedures, with a dedicated company undertaking the referencing, there is more time for them to check these key details carefully and thoroughly to verify that tenants are suitable, capable of taking on the commitment of such a tenancy and have the right to rent.