New research shows that 80 per cent of landlords believe new immigration legislation which comes into force in October 2014, places too much responsibility on them.
The study, conducted by The Online Letting Agents on 300 landlords across the UK, reveals that 43 per cent of landlords are not confident about making the checks that will be required by the legislation, while just 30 per cent are optimistic that they will cope with the new checks.
When it comes to selecting new tenants, nearly half of landlords say they will be much more wary taking on tenants that they think might be immigrants. Despite reassurances that landlords will not be responsible for illegal ‘ghost’ tenants that are living in their properties, 11 per cent of landlords are still worried that they will be responsible for any illegal tenants subletting.
Eleanor Carroll, director of The Online Letting Agents, says the new laws are ”a big burden on both letting agents and landlords and there is no way around it. Landlords and agents will need all the help they can get to integrate the new checks and validations into their overall tenant application process. Not surprisingly, there are a number of companies now offering immigration checking services.”
Carroll believes the danger is that agents and landlords will refuse potential tenants if they believe them to be immigrants.
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