What are right to rent checks and what happens if a landlord skips them?

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Right to rent checks apply to residential tenancies in England (the devolved nations have not adopted the same scheme) and place a legal duty on landlords, or letting agents acting on their behalf, to confirm the immigration status of prospective tenants before a tenancy begins. **Who must be checked** Every adult (18 or over) who will live in the property as their main home must be checked, including all named tenants and any other adult occupiers, not just the person signing the tenancy agreement -- this applies even to lodgers and to occupiers who are not paying rent directly, such as a partner or adult child moving in with the tenant. **How the check works** Landlords must see original identity documents (such as a passport or biometric residence permit) or use the Home Office online right to rent checking service where the tenant has an eVisa or digital immigration status, check the documents are genuine and belong to the person presenting them, and make and keep clear copies along with a record of the date the check was carried out -- checks done properly and on time create a statutory excuse against penalties even if it later turns out the tenant's status was misrepresented. **Time-limited checks for those with limited status** Where a tenant has time-limited permission to be in the UK rather than settled status, the landlord must carry out a follow-up check before that permission expires, to maintain their statutory excuse -- missing a follow-up check can remove the protection the landlord would otherwise have. **Penalties for non-compliance** Landlords who let property to someone without the right to rent, without having carried out a compliant check, can face a civil penalty per illegal occupier, with higher penalties for repeat breaches, and in the most serious cases (knowingly letting to someone with no right to be in the UK) a criminal offence carrying a potential prison sentence and unlimited fine. **Worked example** A landlord lets a flat to two sharers without checking either tenant's identity documents. One tenant turns out to have no right to rent in the UK. Because the landlord cannot show they carried out a compliant check before the tenancy started, they have no statutory excuse and face a civil penalty for the illegal occupier, even though they did not know about the tenant's status -- had the landlord checked and kept records properly, the statutory excuse would likely have protected them from the penalty regardless of what the tenant's documents later turned out to conceal. **Letting agents and shared responsibility** Where a landlord instructs a letting agent to manage lettings, the agent can carry out the right to rent check on the landlord's behalf, but the landlord should get this agreed in writing and confirm the agent has actually completed and retained the checks, since ultimate liability can still fall back on the landlord if the paperwork is incomplete. **Practical tip** Carry out and keep dated copies of right to rent checks for every adult occupier before granting any new tenancy in England, diarise follow-up checks for tenants with time-limited status, and never rely on a tenant's verbal assurance alone -- the statutory excuse only protects landlords who can produce the paperwork.

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