Landlord Assist is the latest lettings organisation to voice concern over legal changes which will oblige letting agents and landlords to police the immigration status of tenants.
The new rules, which form part of the Immigration Bill and are due to become mandatory in 2015, will mean agents and landlords must carry out certain checks on new tenancy agreements before allowing the tenant to move in. Failure to do so could result in landlords facing a fine of up to £3000.
The government says it will carry out a pilot scheme in one location in the UK in two months' time to check a tenant's right to be in the country. The location is yet to be announced.
It is thought that up to 85 per cent of illegal immigrants end up living in privately rented accommodation. The legislation is being introduced to stop rogue landlords letting substandard property to low paid immigrants.
Stephen Parry, commercial director at Landlord Assist, is concerned about the additional red tape for agents and landlords and says without proper education and training it is not viable for them to carry the additional responsibility.
Agents already undertake identity checks on prospective tenants but to be able to decipher Home Office documentation or Visa documents is probably a bridge too far, he says.
We accept that agents should make efforts in this respect but feel it is unfair that they can have such a significant financial penalty hanging over them in the event that something gets passed them. It seems logical that if the Government wish landlords and their agents to carry out a specific function that they should provide appropriate guidance notes on how to do so Parry insists.
The firm says that landlords who do not use an agent to let their properties should be mindful that they may be targeted by individuals who do not have the necessary documentation.
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Comments
Mr Parry is not going to make many friends in agency by his insinuation that we are too dense to understand the fairly simple process the government are hoping to put into place or be able to read a letter or look for a visa in a passport
I think that the letting industry will suddenly claim that the numbers of aliens looking to stay in the UK has dropped dramatically. It will be very difficult to work out why this has happened. Most likely it will be due to the success of border controls. ()
The whole of this country seems to have adapted to avoiding the millions of regulations that confound everything we do. This latest 'game' will just go into the list of things that we have to fiddle, fix or ignore so that we can have a life. The chances of me learning to read and speak twenty or thirty foreign languages in the next few weeks is less likely than a win on the lottery.
The only rule that I will work by is, "If I can not understand it you are not going into my property". What else can I do This government is dab handed at supporting everyone's civil liberties except when it is the government who has to do some work just to do exactly that. No one else can help these people even if they are legally commanded to do so.
Has Mr Parry not seen the Govt advice on how long it takes to be as proficient in this area as they are expecting Landlords to be - which is a reasonable demand in terms of level of ability and competence
Perhaps Mr Parry should go on such a training course, then he would see how easy it is to comply