A Right to Rent Check Record is an official compliance document completed by a landlord (or their agent) in England before granting any adult occupier access to residential premises. The obligation to conduct Right to Rent checks was introduced by sections 20 to 37 of the Immigration Act 2014 and came into force across England on 1 February 2016 following a pilot in the West Midlands. The scheme requires every landlord letting residential property in England to verify, before the tenancy or licence commences, that all adults aged 18 or over who will use the property as their only or main home have the legal right to rent residential property in the United Kingdom.

The Right to Rent scheme is administered by the Home Office under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (as amended) and the Immigration Act 2014. It operates through a simple framework: landlords must check original identity documents against a list of acceptable documents published by the Home Office, or use the government’s online checking service for tenants whose immigration status is held digitally. The check must establish whether the prospective occupier has an unlimited right to rent (List A documents, requiring no follow-up check) or a time-limited right to rent (List B documents, requiring a follow-up check within 28 days before the immigration permission expires). If the check reveals that the occupier has no right to rent, the landlord must refuse to let the property to that person and may report the matter to the Home Office.

The Immigration Act 2016 strengthened the Right to Rent scheme by inserting criminal offence provisions (s.33A of the Immigration Act 2014) for landlords who knowingly or with reasonable cause allow persons with no right to rent to occupy their properties. Civil penalty levels have also been increased substantially, with the maximum penalty for a repeat breach now standing at £20,000 per tenant under the Immigration (Residential Accommodation) (Prescribed Requirements and Codes of Practice) (Amendment) Order 2024. A landlord who conducts compliant checks and retains the required records benefits from a ‘statutory excuse’ under s.22(4) of the Immigration Act 2014, which protects them from civil penalty even if it later emerges that the occupier did not have the right to rent.

The Right to Rent scheme applies only in England. It does not apply in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland, reflecting the devolved nature of housing law in the United Kingdom. Since 6 April 2022, certified Identity Service Providers (IDSPs) may be used to conduct digital Right to Rent checks for British and Irish passport holders, as an alternative to manual in-person document checks, following the government’s Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework.

A Right to Rent check is required by law before a landlord in England grants any adult occupier the right to use residential premises as their only or main home. This obligation arises regardless of the type of tenancy or licence: it applies to assured shorthold tenancies (the most common form of residential letting under the Housing Act 1988), common law tenancies, lodger agreements, and company lets where a named individual will be the occupier. The check must be completed before the tenancy starts, not after. A check carried out after the tenancy has commenced is too late to establish the full statutory excuse.

All adults who will live at the property must be checked, not just those named on the tenancy agreement. This means that if a tenant’s partner, adult children, or other adult occupiers will also be using the property as their main home, each of them must be individually checked and a separate check record must be completed. A single check record covering multiple occupiers is not sufficient; the check must be documented on a per-person basis.

A follow-up check is required wherever the initial check reveals that the occupier has a time-limited right to rent (List B status). The follow-up check must be carried out within 28 days before the earlier of the date the immigration permission expires or a date specified by the Home Office. Landlords who fail to diarise follow-up check dates face the risk of losing their statutory excuse for the period during which the check is overdue. If a follow-up check reveals that the occupier’s permission has expired and they have not obtained further leave, the landlord must notify the Home Office. The landlord then becomes entitled to seek possession on the mandatory Right to Rent ground under Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988.

All Right to Rent check records, including copies of documents or evidence of online checks, must be retained throughout the tenancy and for one year after the tenancy ends. Failure to retain records in accordance with the Code of Practice may deprive the landlord of their statutory excuse even if the underlying check was conducted correctly. Records must be stored securely in compliance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

A properly completed Right to Rent Check Record under the Immigration Act 2014 covers eight essential areas. The first is the landlord’s and (where applicable) the letting agent’s details, including the landlord’s full legal name and correspondence address. Where a letting agent has assumed statutory responsibility for the checks under s.23 of the Immigration Act 2014, the agent’s details must also be recorded. The second area is the property and tenancy details: the full address of the residential property, the tenancy start date, and the type of tenancy or licence. The third area is the tenant’s personal details: full legal name, date of birth (to verify identity against the document), and nationality (which determines which documents are acceptable under the Home Office’s List A and List B).

The fourth key element is the check type and method: whether this is an initial check (before the tenancy starts) or a follow-up check (for a time-limited right to rent), and whether the check was conducted manually (original documents checked in person), via the Home Office online service (using a share code), or through a certified Identity Service Provider (IDSP) for digital verification. The fifth element is the record of documents checked: the document type, document number, expiry date, and issuing authority, or (for online checks) the share code, date the online check was completed, and the result returned by the Home Office service.

The sixth element is the verification steps: confirming that the photograph on the document was checked against the holder’s face, that the original document (not a copy) was checked in the holder’s presence, and that a clear dated copy was retained. These steps are the foundation of the statutory excuse under s.22(4) Immigration Act 2014. The seventh element is the right to rent status established: unlimited (List A, no follow-up required) or time-limited (List B, follow-up required), with the follow-up deadline recorded where applicable. The eighth element is the certification by the person who conducted the check, confirming their name, position, and the date of the check. This certification is important evidence of compliance if the landlord is later investigated by the Home Office or faces a civil penalty notice.