Immigration lawyers have warned that a legal minefield awaits landlords and letting agents, as there are still far too many unanswered questions posed by the Immigration Act, which will introduce a duty to perform checks on the immigration status of tenants from this October.
According to our sources, landlords (and by implication, their agents) will effectively have a duty to check immigration status, yet many landlords and agents seem totally unaware of this new legal requirement and could be badly caught out. However, the detail of what actually will be required is not yet clear, but initially it is likely to involve obtaining copies of currently valid visas and maintaining a database of expiry dates, which would necessitate further checking upon their expiry.
The new requirement is to be implemented this October and there will be a code of practice issued. However, this has not yet been published and it is long overdue. We also understand that there will be a pilot area before the requirement is rolled out, but we do not know where this will be or how long the trial period will last, however we at Belvoir are already integrating these checks into our referencing procedure in order to ensure compliance and develop best practice throughout this year while we await further direction from the Home Office.
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