The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has welcomed a relaxation of the Government’s “right to rent” laws, which mean that tenants will no longer be immediately criminalised for failing to identify tenants who are in the country illegally.
Under new arrangements, landlords will be protected if they take reasonable steps in an appropriate timeframe to terminate the tenancies of those who are found to be living in the UK illegally.
Previous measures set out in the Immigration Act attracted criticism as they would see landlords hit with immediate sanctions.
The RLA’s chairman Alan Ward said: “The RLA warmly welcomes the Government’s pragmatic changes to its ‘right to rent’ scheme that will provide protection for good landlords from the unintended consequences of the policy.”
A number of landlord bodies and politicians had raised concerns about the requirements, which took effect nationwide last year.
Last month, the Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Hamwee criticised ministers for attempting to turn landlords and agents into “immigration officers” and pointed out that the new rules were rolled out across England while a pilot was in fact still being conducted in the West Midlands region.
“It could hardly be said that the pilot was of adequate size, or a representative sample, and that the scheme does not make discrimination all too easy,” she said.
“The great majority of landlords, owning one or two properties, are amateurs who let out a property to supplement pensions or top up salaries. It is these landlords who are likely to be caught out.”