Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of landlord immigration checks in the private rented sector on landlords' willingness to rent.

People with no right to be in the UK should not be able to rent homes and place people who are here legally at a disadvantage.

That is why the Immigration Act 2014 introduced landlords' right to rent checks. The first phase of the landlords’ scheme, which was launched in the Cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Sandwell, Dudley, and Walsall on 1 December 2014, is currently being evaluated.

The regulations enable migrants to demonstrate evidence of their right to rent a property using a range of specified documentation, and the Home Office is providing a responsive checking service for landlords to confirm a person’s right to rent where the individual has an outstanding immigration application or appeal.

People issued with a 30 day visa to enter the UK in advance of collecting their biometric residence permit will be able to evidence their right to rent using their short term visa, and the landlord will then need to conduct a follow-up check after 12 months, at which point the migrant will be able to evidence any continued lawful immigration status using their biometric residence permit (BRP).