14th
Feb 2014
Mark Harper, the immigration minister, announced his resignation after it was discovered that the cleaner at his flat was here illegally and did not have "indefinite leave" to stay in the UK. This has caused a high degree of anxiety within the landlord sector over the new immigration laws that are being introduced.
Mark Harper's new Immigration Bill goes before Parliament this week, it states that landlords must quiz their tenants on their nationality and will also be forced to carry out regular checks on their immigration status.
Any landlords that fail to properly follow this instruction to the letter will be prosecuted, research carried out by an association of landlords has found that only 20 per cent of landlords feel that they can confidently carry out the correct procedures.
Richard Lambert CEO of a Landlord's Association, said: “Landlords are rightly nervous about having the responsibility for verifying an individual’s right to remain within the UK thrust upon them, and this unfortunate situation demonstrates exactly why that is. Whether Mark Harper would or would not have fallen foul of his own policy, he is right to say that, as the immigration minister, he should hold himself to a higher standard.
“If he could not reach the right conclusion on an individual’s immigration status, even after months immersed in the detail, what chance do landlords have of getting it right, especially when they’ll need to verify their tenants’ status regularly? You simply couldn’t make it up.
“We said from the start that the system must be simple, straightforward and easy for landlords to use and understand. The government must look again at what it is asking and give some serious reassurance to landlords across the UK that they won’t be punitively penalised should they find themselves in a similar situation of doing almost nothing wrong.”
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