The Right to Rent is going through an upheaval in 2022 and landlords and agents should be studying the new changes to the Right to Rent Code of Practice that come into effect in April, according to David Smith, partner at JMW Solicitors. 

Smith said: “The changes are a major move to online checks whereby Biometric Residence Cards and Permits and Frontier Worker Permits will all no longer be acceptable for Right to Rent checks in England and anyone presenting with one of these will have to be checked using the Government’s online service. For the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland, the Home Office will require the tenant to register with a certified identity service provider (IDSP) and then for that provider to provide agents and landlords with a check using Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT). 

“What is not clear is whether tenants might potentially have to register with multiple ID checking services as there are bound to be more than one such provider in the market. It also potentially opens up a new avenue of discrimination in the Right to Rent system as those tenants who cannot register easily will find it harder to rent property because agents will want to deal with tenants that they can quickly check with minimal risk.”