14th
Sep 2013
The Home Office is proposing that all landlords in the private rental sector must become involved in fighting illegal immigration by having to check any new tenants, if applicable, by checking their documentation for proper UK permission to live in the United Kingdom. Any landlord who fails to do this could face a civil penalty
The British Property Federation’s director of policy, Ian Fletcher, doubts the success of these extremely costly proposals as it is totally reliant on landlords being able to fully understand the complex papers.
He said: “We need to make sure these regulations are effective. It is a lot of effort to go to if they are not. Landlords are not skilled immigration officers and their recognition of documents beyond the standard UK passport and birth certificate will not be high.
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“Would your average man in the street know what a naturalisation certificate looks like, or right of abode certificate, or the passport of any country in the world?” He believes that it is foolhardy to carry out the proposal without first making sure that landlords will be able to recognise and understand the reams of documents. After all , he points out, it is skilled border control staff who are able to check the paperwork and recognise that the proper credentials are in order for anyone migrating from outside Europe. This takes some time even for the “experienced professionals” so mistakes could be made by landlords who are virtually unskilled in this process.
If the proposals are approved, every tenant, including all UK citizens, will have to be checked at a cost of £156.5m over three years. The British Property Federation warns that the only way that the policy should be passed is if validated research is carried out or after a pilot programme had been embarked upon.
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The Federation has made suggestions that include the introduction of a whistle blowing system if anyone has fears over a tenant who may be staying in the country illegally, a two week bedding in period for landlords before they are prosecuted and reducing the amount of tenants who are checked. Fletcher adds: “As things stand, landlords will be open to prosecution immediately on occupancy. What happens if they cannot access the website or the real-time helpline does not respond?
“We suggest a fairer solution would be to allow a compliance period of two weeks to allow landlords to check and record documents.”
He also recommended a separate process for students who also have many additional checks already as part of their application process.
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