02/11/2020
DIGITAL RIGHT TO RENT CHECKS FOR
NON-UK NATIONALS FROM 25 NOVEMBER
Later this month, new regulations come into force in England allowing non-UK nationals to evidence their status for Right to Rent through a digital Home Office check.
As with the Right to Work system, the individual will provide a share code along with their date of birth, which the agent can use to access a real time Home Office system.
While the system is likely to reduce the work involved in some Right to Rent checks, not everyone will have an immigration status that can be checked online at this time therefore you should be prepared to continue with checks involving original documents.
The groups that may present you with a share code for a digital check are:
non-EEA nationals with a current biometric resident permit or card
EEA nationals and their family members with status granted under the EU Settlement Scheme
those with status under the points-based immigration system
The online service will confirm that no further check is required for someone who has a continuous right to rent. For someone with a time-limited right to rent, the service will advise when a further check is required.
As soon as the new online service is available we will provide you with an update.
The new checks, which have been in development for around 18 months will be available from 25 November 2020 and will reduce some of the work involved in document checks for letting agents. This will particularly help where agents are concerned that they are dealing with unfamiliar identity documentation from a range of overseas territories.
Going forwards, the new system will also mean that these digital checks specifically (not all checks however) can be carried out permanently via video call, as letting agents will not need to see documents.
To support the new system, the Home Office has updated the existing Code of Practice, which also now reflects changes to the status of visitor nationals from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the USA which came in in July 2019 (known as B5JSSK nationals).
The existing visual reference tool designed to provide examples of relevant identity documents has also been updated and a new Short Guide to Right to Rent has been published.