What you need to know: Right to Rent for EU nationals after 30 June 2021

Eighteen months after leaving the European Union (EU), the Government has now published legislation covering how to check the right to rent status of people coming from the EU. Senior policy officer James Wood explains what landlords need to know about carrying out Right to Rent checks for EU nationals after 30 June 2021.

The Government has now published legislation covering how to check the right to rent status of people coming from the EU.

Up to now, prospective tenants from the EU (or the EEA and Switzerland) have effectively been treated exactly the same as British nationals.

If they had one or two documents from List A, they could establish a permanent right to rent, meaning only one check was needed, before the start of the tenancy. As long as this was done, landlords could not be prosecuted or fined for renting to someone without right to rent.

Most people born outside of the UK could only establish time limited right to rent by providing one document from List B. This meant that landlords needed to keep checking their tenants right to rent status to keep refreshing their protection from prosecution.

This meant that it was far easier for landlords to comply with right to rent when letting to someone from inside the EU than to someone from outside it.

This is set to change, and checking the right to rent status of an EU national is about to become quite a bit more confusing for landlords from 1 July.

Permanent right to rent for EU nationals