“Who would want to move to Nottingham in weather
like this?” a landlord said to me as we shook hands outside his property the
other day. It was windy, cold and had been raining most of the day, it was a
late appointment at 7.00 pm. I will admit, as I had been out of the office all
day, I was looking forward to getting home at a reasonable time, putting the
fire on and watching telly, but as this landlord works in Derby this was the
earliest he could do. It turned out he had been self-managing the property over
the last few years, but was worried that he was not able to keep up with all
the new legislation that had been introduced recently. He was particularly
concerned about the ‘Right to Rent’ legislation. As his tenant had handed in
their notice recently, he called us for our opinion on the legislation and to
ask us for our advice on marketing the property for a new tenant.
For those Nottingham landlords who are not aware,
landlords will need to check the immigration status of any new tenants moving
into properties from February 2016 or face a £3,000 fine. It is called the
‘Right to Rent’ rules. However, tenants should also be aware that as well as
traditional landlords, tenants who sublet rooms and homeowners who take in
lodgers, must also check the right of prospective tenants to reside in the UK,
this is in line with the more stringent rules brought in with the new
immigration Act 2014.
This landlord wanted to know how much of a real
issue ‘Right to Rent’ in Nottingham was. I was able to tell him, the last
available figures (from a couple of years ago) show that 2,122 people (whom
were registered as non-UK born short-term residents) moved into private rented
accommodation in the Nottingham City Council area in one year alone. If all of
those people weren’t supposed to be in the UK, that would be a fine of
£6,366,000 to the landlords of the town.
It doesn’t sound a lot when you think there are
289,301 residents in Nottingham City and of those, 230,666 people (or 79.73%)
were born in the UK. However, Nottingham is a cosmopolitan city and the country
of birth of the residents in the area can be split down as follows:
UK 79.73%
Ireland
0.62%
Europe
5.50%
Africa
3.62%
Middle East
and Asia 3.62%
Americas
and Caribbean 2.03%
Australia
and Pacific region 0.17%
It has to be acknowledged that landlords can also
run the risk of being accused of discrimination under the 2010 Equality Act if
they are not careful. This is a real minefield for landlords, especially when
you consider that not all of the 15,900 Europeans in the area necessarily have
the right to live in the UK either.
In a nutshell, Nottingham landlords will need to
check and retain copies of certain documents that show a potential tenant has
the right to live in the UK. These options include....
Passport/Identity
card
Visa
Travel
document or Permanent Residence Card showing indefinite leave to remain
Biometric
‘residence permit’ issued by the Home Office
Paperwork
from Home Office stating their Immigration status
Certificate
of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen.
Let’s hope this will prevent dishonest landlords
ailing to comply with the ‘Right to rent’ checks. As failing to comply will be
a criminal offence and could mean facing imprisonment. That is why more and
more landlords are asking agents to manage their properties, so they can stay
the right side of the law.
So what did this landlord do? Well after our chat,
he asked us to find a tenant and manage the property for him. Even better news
for him, I was able to get him an additional £50 per month for his property and
his new tenant moved in within a week. Now, he has peace of mind, that we will
keep him on the right side of the law and put a stop to midnight phone calls
complaining about dripping taps, it was a win-win situation for everyone.
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