Right to rent was introduced under the Immigration Act 2014 and this week we were able to assist one of our members with a query relating to students.
One of our landlords wanted to know when right to rent checks were necessary for their student tenants. They had heard that students do not need to prove right to rent.
However they have always carried out right to rent checks on students in the past and wanted to be sure that was correct to do.
the Immigration Act 2014 contains an exemption that certain types of residential tenancies are exempt from right to rent checks.
One of these exeptions is for “student accommodation” and some private landlords have interpreted this as meaning they do not have to carry out checks on students.
However this is not the case. The exemption is specific to university halls of residence accommodation, provided by certain educational bodies, and as a private landlord does not fall into this category, they cannot benefit from it.
Our member was advised they should continue to right to rent check their students as they had done previously.
Learn more about right to rent by reading our guidance for landlords.