Right to Rent Checks: What Landlords Must Do

Before you hand over the keys, the law in England expects you to have checked that everyone who will live in the property as their only or main home has the right to rent it. It's a quick process once you know the steps — but it's easy to do carelessly, and the penalties for skipping it or getting it wrong can be steep. Here's what the Right to Rent scheme asks of you and how to stay on the right side of it.

What is Right to Rent?

Right to Rent is a scheme, currently applying in England only, that requires landlords to check the immigration status of prospective adult tenants before letting to them. The aim is to make sure you don't let a property as someone's main home to a person who isn't allowed to live in the UK. It doesn't apply to every arrangement — for example, some accommodation tied to other checks is excluded — but for a standard private tenancy, it applies.

Who do you need to check?

You must check every adult who will occupy the property as their only or main home, whether or not they are named on the tenancy agreement. Don't assume the lead tenant is the only person to check, and don't skip someone because they seem obviously settled — the duty is to carry out the check and keep the evidence, not to make a judgement call.

How to carry out a check

There are a few routes, and which one you use depends on the person's circumstances:

• Online check with a share code. Many people now prove their status digitally. They give you a Home Office share code and their date of birth, and you verify it on the government's online service.
• Digital identity check. For many British and Irish citizens with a valid passport, checks can be done through a certified identity service provider.
• Manual document check. Where the online route doesn't apply, you check original documents from the official lists in the presence of the holder.

Whichever route applies, the principle is the same: confirm the documents or record are genuine and belong to the person in front of you, and do the check before the tenancy starts.

Doing a manual check properly

If you're checking original documents, the standard approach is to:

1. Obtain the original documents from the official acceptable-documents lists.
2. Check them with the person present — in person or over a live video call — making sure photos and dates of birth are consistent and the documents are valid.
3. Copy and keep a clear record of each document, and note the date you made the check.

Keeping the evidence is not optional bookkeeping — it's what establishes your defence if your right to rent is ever questioned. It's also part of the same audit trail a council relies on when it asks you to produce your compliance records — so it's worth storing your Right to Rent checks alongside your certificates rather than in a separate drawer.

Follow-up checks

Some tenants have a time-limited right to rent. In those cases you don't just check once — you need to carry out a follow-up check when their permission is due to expire, and keep evidence of that too. If a follow-up shows someone no longer has the right to rent, there are steps you're expected to take, which can include reporting the situation to the Home Office. Where a person has an unlimited right to rent, a single correct check at the outset is generally enough.

What are the penalties?

Letting to someone who doesn't have the right to rent, without having done a proper check, can lead to a civil penalty — and in the most serious cases, where a landlord knew or had reasonable cause to believe they were letting to a disqualified person, to a criminal offence carrying the possibility of a fine or imprisonment. The penalty levels are set by government and have been increased in recent years, so treat them as significant and check the current figures rather than relying on an old number.

What should landlords do?

1. Check every adult occupier before the tenancy begins — not just the named tenant.
2. Use the right route — online share-code or certified digital check where it applies, a manual document check otherwise.
3. Keep dated copies of every check securely, for the length of the tenancy and afterwards.
4. Diarise follow-ups for anyone with time-limited permission, well before it expires.
5. Apply the process consistently to everyone, to check correctly and avoid discriminating against prospective tenants.

Right to Rent rarely sits on its own. The same care that protects you here — a correct check, kept and dated — is what protects a possession claim now that no-fault eviction has ended and everything turns on evidence. Treat all your tenancy paperwork as one connected record, and each obligation gets easier to meet. It matters more than ever now that large upfront rent payments are banned and referencing has become the main way landlords manage risk — the check and the reference trail are two halves of the same job (and they're separate duties — one legal, one commercial — so do both). The Renters' Rights Act added another document to that trail: the Information Sheet you had to serve existing tenants — another "serve it and prove you served it" duty that belongs in the same file.

General guidance for UK landlords, not legal advice. The Right to Rent scheme applies in England, and the acceptable documents, checking methods and penalty levels are set by government and can change — always verify the current rules, document lists and how to use the online checking service at GOV.UK, and take professional advice where needed.