A leading property law firm is warning that landlords face bankruptcy as a result of the massive increase in fines they are threatened with from the Home Office.
Landlords and agents who are found to have let their properties to unauthorised migrants will face penalties of up to £5,000 per lodger and £10,000 per occupier for a first breach, up from £80 and £1,000 respectively.
Repeat breaches could cost them up to £10,000 per lodger, up from £500, and a maximum of £20,000 per occupier, up from £3,000.
It is thought laws to enforce the fines will be enacted early in 2024.
Responding to the announcement Gary Scott - a partner at law firm Spector Constant & Williams - says: "This announcement is a further nail in the coffin for amateur landlords. The expectation seems to be that landlords should somehow become a branch of the Border Force.
“The increase of penalties by 1000 per cent, up to £10,000 per occupier for a first infringement of these rules and up to £20,000 for a repeat offence (an increase of 667 per cent), will be likely to frighten off many good landlords.
"The obligations have not changed but the penalty for getting it wrong have now become more than a headache or a slap across the wrist, but have moved to the territory of potential bankruptcy for many landlords."
"In these circumstances a simple error by an unwitting landlord allowing a family of four to take a tenancy when their immigration visas have just expired could arguably lead to fines for the landlord of up to £40,000.
"Landlords, especially those with four or fewer properties and which make up over 50% of the total number of rented flats in the private rented sector, are not equipped or trained to carry out the role of a Border Force agent. The additional burdens on landlords brought in by the Government have already driven many from the market and this measure is likely to see many more follow suit."
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Mae a note of the Lawfirm, you are going to need them.
Checking the Right to Rent using the Share Code is pretty simple. Putting the date the Right to Rent expires on your calendar is pretty simple.
According to the government website "If the tenant no longer has the right to rent, you will need to report them to the Home Office and they will then take the relevant action. As long as you can evidence that you have done the relevant checks and then reported them when/if they no longer have the right to rent you will have a statutory excuse".
It basically means that landlords should do the job of the border control officers. What next?
Ferey, be the tenant’s carer when the NHS can’t cope?.
It is another ridiculous imposition on us - and very unfair that we should be fined at all for others' wrongdoing.
So the Border taxi service bring illegals to our shores, and we are then punished if they con their way into our properties 🤷♂️. Anyway, this won’t affect me as my tenant selection is so tough that most of mine look they hail from the shires and were educated at Cambridge 👍🏻
It's blaming the victim. My tenants are the same.
This has been the law for at least 5 years now, so hardly news unless you don't bother checking Right to Rent when accepting new tenants.
This is likely to make racial discrimination even more likely as LLs will prefer UK passport holders over anyone else to avoid the risk.
To be honest, I have always done this. It has worked for me, so I am not changing.
I'm the same as Simon, no British passport, no house. Luckily there are always plenty of good tenants to choose from, I've no need to take the risk.
Another savage attack on Private landlords to destroy him. We are not the Police we’ll have share codes where Contracts were renewed, what about Tenancies that existed when those rules didn’t apply.
What about Tenants bringing in people behind your back is it just the Landlords that gets fined or is the Tenant exempt if he does same thing, they are not just increasing or doubling the fines but in some cases it increases 10 or 20 times more, our landlord justice system must be seen as a world model not.
There’s a difficulty recognising the difference between a lodger, an occupier, an asylum seeker, a refugee or a migrant surely they are all occupiers and which ones are illegal.
Just don’t rent to foreigners now. Why take the risk?
The government doesn’t stop illegal immigration. They even send a taxi out to collect them.
Actually foreign visitors were very popular tenants when the Rent Acts were in force because they would leave when they had finished their business in this country.
Ellie,
I think now they will never finish their business here. They are here for a lifetime of benefit claims coming.
Even today a lot of asylum seekers will not get on the Bibby Stockholm barge. They are scared of water! They weren't scared to get into the dingy and travel 80 miles or so in treacherous conditions.
Nick, people wanted rich foreign business people as tenants in the past, not the destitute.
People may let to asylum seekers through a housing association in the future though, if it means that they can get their properties back after a fixed term. We may not want them to board Bibby Stockholm - they may be potential licensees.
What about tenants illegally subletting? We will get fined for each illegal. The lower end tenants will seek out these illegals to house them and earn rent out of the them themselves. Only the other day it was council licensing fines discussed. This will all be on top! 🆘🆘🆘
And there is no doubt that illegals could be brought in when landlords use rent to rent agreements where subletting is intrinsic to the arrangement.
Surely the whole point is if you do the Right to Rent checks and then report any overstayers or undocumented non tenants to the Home Office you have fully complied.
Personally I have never entered into a rent to rent arrangement, but I imagine that the Landlord wouldn't actually know to whom their property had been rented by the agent in those circumstances.
Happy to do the Right to Rent checks to comply. Not happy if I get fined for some silly reason. I may just as well only let to people I can be sure are UK citizens. No reason to take the risk.
We won't get fined as we don't rent to immigrants.
I think that has to be policy now if they don't look British or don't have a British name then no tenancy, we won't have a problem then
You still have to do Right to Rent checks on people that appear to be British.
Using a Share Code for an international tenant is a whole lot easier than trying to get sight of a passport for a lot of Brits. It's amazing how many leave their passport with their parents at the other side of the country.
Just made the decision not to relet any properties
Its getting out of hand
Join the queue 😂😂💰💰
I went on a Landlord Training Course. The trainer was a former Council Housing Officer. He and colleagues had attended a Home Office training course, which included Right to Rent. The Home Office people said that even they had difficulty identifying counterfeit passports which are very skilfully produced - especially those from countries that they are less familiar with. So the average landlord who only sees a few passports is unlikely to spot a forgery.
I suppose all we can do is take the photocopies of all the tenants' documents and hope they are legit!
OR….. only let to British passport holders, as I do. It’s really simple and given the total drought of properties I don’t need to take any chances at all. Why bother 🤷♂️
stop the border taxi service first, and get the lazy home office to do the will of the people....we are a business,not part of the government
I used to donate to RNLI. Now they are part of the problem. Donations stopped a while ago.
This is the reason why I've been campaigning for "Tenant's Licensing."
The "Right to rent, " documentation is data protection!
In order for the LL to confirm the status of the tenant's "Right to rent," the LL will require their DOB and NI number.
Under these circumstances, most LL's would and should have already been registered with the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) as data controllers, with a registration number provided to the tenants, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Letter/Notification upon each tenancy renewal.
The problem we have here, is that if your tenant is in rent arrears or uncooperative, you may face difficulties in getting them to provide you with the "Right to Rent," especially if, they're adamant that you're not getting their NI number.
In addition to all of that, the documentation has an expiry date and has to be presented to the tenant upon each tenancy renewal.
It's for this reason, that the tenant should also be accountable for providing and taking a joint responsibility in providing these documents, not just the LL!
If your tenant refuses to cooperate wouldn't you just assume they have overstayed and report them to the Home Office just in case?
I wonder how well this is policed. If licenced properties are hardly ever inspected, how often are tenants checked? How often are landlords fined?
Philip, have a heart, the poor People from the Home Office are mainly working from Home. Surely you would not want to disturb their cushy parasitic life style.
Question.. Are 'Right to Rent' checks are retrospective. . I appreciate new agreements and rent increases change the situation but surely if tenancy is rolled over no check is required.
I was buying a flat to rent up to the end of July... Gov threats and reported changes (choice of tenants, Rule 21 change without Rul8 proposal, limit on rent increase, etc, etc) ..I pulled out of the purchase.. better to lose £1200+ legals than have the future agro and giving more stamp duty to this Gov to waste.
Most prospective tenants I have had to view property in one town have expired or about to expire within 2 months a permit to stay in UK. However, they have told me a week or 2 later that a letting agent or a landlord gave them the keys to the house in exvhange of all documents without any checking or referencing. This is so one sided. These tenants are employed by a popular place. One was a single mother and the council is paying the rent and she is on benefits. Her younger sister had a baby as well but was living with a partner and was looking for a house, as they were in separate flats. Their visas are expiring in October 2023. They applied for extension of visas in July. I know they will get the visas or right to stay in the UK as their babies are born in the UK. We did not give them accomodation, even though our 2 properties have been empty for 6 months and 2 months respectively. I have had many Romanians and Polish. They are all gettimg accomodation from other LLs. Someone is clearly not bothering with this regulation or do not know about them.
The LL needs to ask for DOB and share code to check on the govt website. We are now doing a job of Border force and Home office aa they clearly aware of these people and where they live and work. Their work place applies for the extension of work permit, which is not done on time to get the visa extension, when the old one expires.
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