Right To Rent may be tweaked to allow easier online checks

The Home Office is proposing a new online service to make it easier for agents and landlords to check that prospective tenants fulfil the Right To Rent requirements.

Right To Rent was introduced in 2015 after a six month trial in the Midlands, and has been hit by non-stop controversy ever since.

In the spring of this year the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the government’s scheme, overturning a decision reached in 2019 by the High Court which had found that the Right To Rent legislation was unlawful and racially discriminatory; at the time the High Court said the measure caused agents and landlords to discriminate against British citizens with ethnic minorities and against foreign nationals.

Now Parliamentary Secretary Chris Philp has told MPs in the House of Commons that a new online system will enhance the current process, and will permit agents and landlords to carry out a check in real time via video links if required.

“We have worked closely with landlords and letting agents in designing the service, but we need to change right to rent legislation to enable them to rely on the new online service to discharge their legal responsibilities under the scheme” Philp has told MPs.

It is thought the new process may allow prospective tenants to see at least some of the Home Office data used to verify - or not - the individual’s eligibility to live in the UK.