There has been anger over plans that landlords could now be responsible for checking the immigration status of any potential tenant. FCC Paragon, which provides numerous services to the residential lettings industry has also voiced it’s concern, as their experience in this sensitive field had previously led them to offer the Government a credible free solution over three years ago, which was rejected.

As part of their tenant referencing business, FCC had come across numerous fraudulent applications being made. This has also been apparent when assisting Landlords via their Rent Recovery Department, where tenancies have been granted and which have, in many cases led to, sub letting, huge rent arrears, substantive dilapidations. On the occasions where foreign nationals were involved it has been nigh on impossible to have any recourse for return of monies outstanding etc as often they have absconded before being able to take any action.

In 2010, after identifying growing concerns surrounding the verification of foreign nationals, Janie Gaston, Operations Director at FCC Paragon, wrote to the deputy prime minister (Rt Hon Nick Clegg) offering a free service which would check the validity of prospective tenants to ensure that they were entitled to be residing and working in UK.

She said: “We like to think we are a forward thinking company and our experience in this field led us to recognise the issues and try to tackle it head on, but our proposal was rejected on the grounds that Government already had their own initiatives in place.”

Commenting about the fact that landlords could potentially face huge fines if they do not correctly check the immigration status of potential tenants, Ms Gaston added: “This is just another regulatory burden for landlords and will not do anything to tackle immigration problems as professional landlords will already be taking such measures via thorough tenant referencing.

“Landlords have not been provided with a solution, they don’t know where to go to verify documents or how long it will take and most wouldn’t know if they were looking at a fraudulent document or not. This is a risky and careless step for the Government to have taken.”