Right to Rent
The legal requirement in England to check that every adult occupant has the right to live in the UK before a tenancy starts. Failures carry substantial civil penalties.
Right to rent checks apply to every person aged 18 or over who will occupy the property as their only or main home, whether or not they are named on the tenancy agreement. The check must happen before the tenancy starts.
The three routes
- Manual: inspect original documents (passport, immigration documents) in the person's presence and keep dated copies.
- Home Office online service: the applicant provides a share code and you check it against their date of birth online.
- Certified IDVT provider: digital identity verification for British and Irish passport holders.
Record keeping and follow-ups
Keep copies of documents or online results for the whole tenancy plus at least one year. If someone's permission to stay is time-limited, diarise a follow-up check for just before it expires or after 12 months, whichever is later. If a follow-up check fails, report to the Home Office to keep your statutory excuse.
Civil penalties for letting to someone without the right to rent are substantial and rise sharply for repeat breaches, so a signed record of each check is worth keeping in every tenancy file.