20/04/22
The Home Office have updated the Right to Rent Checks: A guide to immigration documents for tenants and landlords, which confirms Landlords can no longer accept or check a physical BRP,BRC or FWP as valid proof of right to rent, even if it shows alater expiry date. It has also updated which documents are acceptable.
Please see here for the latest guidance
13/04/22
Further guidance has been released which confirms what documents are acceptable for Ukrainian refuges for them to qualify for the right to rent checks.
Please see here for the guidance
16/03/22
The landlord guide for Right to rent has been slightly updated
Points of note in this updated guidance include:
changes in the way Biometric Residence Card, Biometric Residence Permit (BRC/BRPs) and Frontier Worker Permit (FWPs) holders prove their right to rent in England changes to the lists of acceptable documents (Annex A):
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amendments to List A, Group 1 and List B to remove documents issued by the Home Office to a family member of an EEA or Swiss citizen, which indicated that the holder had permission to stay in the United Kingdom
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amendment Article 4 of the 2014 Order to include an application for leave to enter or remain under Appendix EU to the Isle of Man Immigration Rules and removal of reference to applications submitted on or before 30 June 2021
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changes and further guidance to enable employers to use Identity Service Providers (IDSPs) to carry out digital identity verification as part of a right to work check (Annex D)
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extension to the COVID-19 temporary adjusted right to work checks until 30 September 2022 (Annex E)
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Please see the here for the draft guidance that will commence on 6 April 2022
It would be easy to miss it but in the midst of the announcement of the national lockdown the Right to Rent rules have been updated. A helpful Home office factsheet outlining the changes can be found
here. It is largely dealing with a new online checking service (not to be confused with the temporary remote checking during Covid-19). For a limited number of applicants (those with specific biometric documentation or part of the EU settlement Scheme) they will be able to use an online version of that information to allow a landlord or agent to check, online, and not have to see the physical document. This mirrors one introduced last year for employers, who have similar "right to work" checks to carry out. Though a really good idea the limitation will be that few people have the right documentation to qualify. they have also made it slightly easier for UK national to prove their status by allowing the sort form of birth or adoption certificate, previously it was only the long form. Further information can be found
here
Whilst not an actual change in the rules, the guidance has been updates to reflect the rules brought in last year for the B5JSSK countries not needing a visa on entry. the guidance also stresses the need not to be discriminatory, probably following the legal challenge they successfully defended.