What is a right to rent check? The rules in England

A right to rent check is the check a landlord in England makes, before a tenancy starts, that every adult who will live in the property is allowed to rent a home in the UK. It comes from the Immigration Act 2014, which says a landlord must not authorise an adult to occupy premises under a residential tenancy agreement if that adult is disqualified by their immigration status. The scheme applies in England only. A landlord, or an agent who has taken the job on in writing, who checks in the prescribed way has a statutory excuse against a civil penalty.

Who has a right to rent?

The code sorts people into three groups. British and Irish citizens, and people with settled status or no time limit on their stay, have an unlimited right to rent. People with valid permission to be in the UK for a limited time, including pre-settled status, have a time-limited right to rent. People who need permission to be in the UK and do not have it have no right to rent.

Who must be checked, and when?

The check covers every adult occupier, aged 18 or over, who will use the property as their only or main home, whether or not they are named on the tenancy agreement. GOV.UK lists accommodation where no check is needed, including social housing, care homes, student accommodation and leases of seven years or more.

For a person with an unlimited right to rent the check can be made at any time before the agreement is entered into. For a person with a time-limited right it must be made no earlier than 28 days before the tenancy starts.

How is a right to rent check done?

There are three kinds of check.

• A manual check. Obtain original documents from the Home Office's lists, check them in the presence of the occupier, in person or by video call, with the originals in your possession, then copy and keep them.

• A Home Office online check. The occupier generates a share code, nine characters beginning with R, valid for 90 days, and the landlord enters it with the person's date of birth and confirms the photograph is the person.

• A check through a registered digital verification service provider. The landlord remains responsible for the check being done as prescribed.

When is a follow-up check needed?

A time-limited right to rent gives a time-limited excuse. It lasts for what the code calls the eligibility period, the longest of one year from the check, the end of the person's permission, or the expiry of the document that shows it. A follow-up check is made before that period ends. If it shows the occupier no longer has a right to rent, the landlord must make a report to the Home Office as soon as reasonably practicable, and making the report keeps the excuse in place. Copies are kept for the tenancy and for one year after it ends, then securely destroyed.

Is the landlord or the letting agent responsible?

For a letting agency, GOV.UK says a landlord can ask an agent to carry out the check and that the agreement should be in writing. The code is more direct: where an agent has accepted responsibility in writing for compliance with the scheme, liability for any civil penalty rests with the agent, not the landlord. The written agreement should say whether the agent takes on the first check only, or the follow-up checks as well.

What are the penalties?

GOV.UK gives the civil penalties as £5,000 for a lodger and £10,000 for a tenant on a first breach, and £10,000 and £20,000 for further breaches. GOV.UK also says a person can be sent to prison for five years or fined for renting property in England to someone they knew or had reasonable cause to believe had no right to rent.

What is a right to rent check confused with?

• Tenant referencing. Referencing asks whether an applicant can afford the rent and has kept a tenancy before. Right to rent asks only whether they may rent in the UK. They are separate questions with separate records. Our guide to tenant referencing from application to move-in shows where the check sits.

• A right to work check. That is an employer's check, across the whole of the UK, with a share code beginning with W. A code made for one cannot be used for the other. See what a right to work check is.

• A check on tenants from overseas. The code says it is unlawful to discriminate on grounds including race when letting, and that the checks apply to all adult occupiers.

Where does the time go, and where can an AI worker help?

In a lettings office the check itself takes little time. The delay comes earlier, from three sharers of whom one has sent a code, a code that begins with the wrong letter and an occupier nobody mentioned until the day before move-in.

An AI worker can tell each applicant what to provide, ask for the share code or book the time for documents to be seen, chase until every adult is covered, file the dated record against the tenancy and keep the follow-up dates. The check, any doubt about a document, the report to the Home Office and the decision to let all stay with your own named person. That work is part of the tenant referencing role, and the follow-up dates sit with renewals and expiry tracking. This article describes the scheme from the Home Office's code of practice and guide of 1 October 2026, as read on 3 October 2026, and is not advice on your own agreements with landlords.

For a letting agency the evidence would be gathered before move-in and no follow-up date missed, and your people would make every check. If move-ins wait on the one sharer who has not sent a code, talk to our agent.