Right to Rent checks: how to do them properly

Under the Immigration Act 2014, a landlord in England must not authorise an adult to occupy a property as their only or main home unless that person has the right to rent. The way you discharge that duty is a prescribed check, carried out before the tenancy begins and evidenced with a dated copy — the "statutory excuse" that protects you if an occupier's status later turns out to be wrong.

The scheme applies in England only. It covers most residential tenancies, licences and lodger arrangements, with limited exclusions such as social housing, care homes, student accommodation allocated by an institution, and holiday accommodation.

• Every occupier aged 18 or over, whether or not they are named on the agreement.
• Adult partners, adult children and other household members moving in with the tenant.
• Lodgers, and any subtenant you have permitted.
• Any new adult occupier who joins the household later, before they move in.

Check everyone in the same way. Selective checking based on name, accent, ethnicity or perceived nationality is unlawful discrimination as well as a breach of the scheme's code of practice.

• Home Office online check. The occupier gives you a share code; you enter it with their date of birth and confirm the photograph matches. This is the only valid route for anyone whose status is held digitally, including eVisa holders — you cannot accept a physical document instead.
• Manual document check. For British and Irish citizens with acceptable documents. You must see the original, with the person present in person or over a live video call while you hold the original, check it is genuine and belongs to them, then take and date a copy.
• Certified IDVT provider. A digital identity check via a certified Identity Service Provider, available for British and Irish citizens with a valid passport (or Irish passport card). Keep the provider's check result.

If the person has an outstanding application, appeal or administrative review, or the Home Office holds their documents, use the Landlord Checking Service and keep the Positive Right to Rent Notice it returns.

• Record the date the check was made — the date, not just the copy, is what evidences the excuse.
• Keep copies for the tenancy plus at least one year after it ends.
• Diarise follow-up checks for anyone with a time-limited right: before their permission expires, or twelve months after the last check, whichever is later.
• If a follow-up shows the person no longer has the right to rent, report it to the Home Office — reporting is what preserves your excuse.
• Store copies securely and keep only what the scheme requires.

Civil penalty levels rose in February 2024. A first breach attracts up to £5,000 per lodger and £10,000 per occupier; repeat breaches attract up to £10,000 per lodger and £20,000 per occupier. Renting to someone you know, or have reasonable cause to believe, is disqualified is a criminal offence carrying an unlimited fine and up to five years' imprisonment.

Where a written agreement makes a letting agent responsible for Right to Rent, liability transfers to the agent. Without that written transfer, it stays with you — self-managing landlords carry it in full.

Treat the check as a fixed step in your letting process, sitting between referencing and signing: check every adult, capture the evidence, date it, file it against the property, and set the follow-up reminder in the same sitting. The failure mode is almost never a bad check — it is a check that was done and never recorded, or a follow-up nobody diarised.

The wider set of pre-tenancy duties — deposit protection and prescribed information, the gas record, the EICR, the EPC and How to Rent — sits in our compliance checklist, and the first-time landlord guide puts them in order.