“Who would want to move to Canterbury in weather like
this?”, was what one landlord said to me as we shook hands outside his
property, the other afternoon. It was windy, cold, it had been raining most of
the day and it was the last appointment of the day at 4.45pm. I will admit, as
I had been out of the office all day, I was looking forward to getting home,
putting the fire on, and watching telly with a big mug of tea.. but this
landlord lived in neighbouring Ashford and this was the earliest he could do.
It turned out he had been self-managing the property himself
over the last few years, but was worried with all the new legislation that had been
introduced recently. He was particularly concerned about the up and coming
‘Right to Rent’ legislation, so as his tenant had handed in their notice
recently, on this new tenancy he called us for our opinion.
For those Canterbury landlords that don’t know, 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 sub-let rooms and homeowners who take in lodgers, must
also check the right of prospective tenants to reside in the UK.
Our landlord from Ashford wanted to know how much of a real
issue was ‘Right to Rent’ in Canterbury. I was able to tell him, the last
available figures (from a couple of years ago) show that 438 people (whom were
registered as Non-UK Born Short-term Residents) moved into private rented
accommodation in the Canterbury 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 £1,314,000
to the landlords of the City.
It doesn’t sound a lot when you think there are 54,880
residents in Canterbury City Council area, and of those, 43,939 people (or 80.06%)
were born in the UK. But Canterbury is a cosmopolitan city as the country of
birth of the residents in the Canterbury City Council area can be split down as
follows:
UK 80.06%
Ireland 0.73%
Europe 8.21%
Africa 2.48%
Middle East and Asia 6.29%
Americas and Caribbean 1.67%
Australia and Pacific region 0.46%
However, it must also be recognised that landlords, by checking
up on tenants, could potentially be accused of discrimination under the
Equality Act. This is a real minefield for landlords, especially when you
consider that not all of the 4,506 Europeans in the area necessarily have the
right to live in the UK either.
In a nutshell, Canterbury 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 include ....
UK Passport
EEA Passport/Identity card
Travel document or Permanent Residence Card showing
indefinite leave to remain
Paperwork from Home Office stating their Immigration status
Certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British
citizen.
I hope the new law will target dishonest landlords who
repeatedly fail to carry out Right to Rent checks by making it a criminal
offence. This means they could face imprisonment for failing to check on their
tenants. 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 our landlord do?
Well after our chat, he asked us to find a tenant and manage
the property for him - he had been reading the Canterbury Property Blog for a
while and because of the knowledge we impart to the landlords of Canterbury, we
obviously know what we are talking about.
Even better news for him, even though this would cost him agency fees, I
was able to get him an additional £75 per month for his property (when we found
him a tenant one week later). Now, together with the peace of mind we will keep
him 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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