Right to rent: huge fines, but no prosecutions

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has called on Home Secretary Sajid Javid to review the government’s Right to Rent policy, after it was revealed that £23,500 in fines were issued between January and March 2018.

The Right to Rent scheme was introduced in February 2016 and requires landlords or their agents to check the immigration status of prospective tenants by keeping a copy of their passport or identity card. If they let a property to someone who has no legal right to be in the UK, the landlord may be fined as much as £3,000 or face up to five years in jail.

In the first quarter of this year, there were 39 penalties, with the average fine at just under £650.

‘Landlords are neither immigration experts nor border agents,’ said Chris Norris, director of policy and practice at the NLA,

‘The scheme has placed an additional cost on an already pressurised sector, while the excessive checks and lack of monitoring may have had harmful consequences for would-be and vulnerable tenants.’

In just under two years, 405 fines with a total value of £326,000 have been handed out, but no prosecutions. Some landlords have said that fear of breaking the rules and incurring a large financial penalty has put them off accepting foreign tenants even if they may be legally residing here.

The Home Office responded: ‘We have a compliant environment to deter illegal immigration.’