In what may be construed as a return to normal practice post coronavirus restrictions, it has been confirmed that face to face Right to Rent checks will return as of 17 May 2021.
A temporary lessening of these rules while face to face contact remained difficult due to social distancing etc ensured that video checking of documentation and scanned documentation were permitted in order to comply with the statutory requirements. This is something we originally blogged about in March last year (https://painsmith.co.uk/right-to-rent-update/) clearly at the time not expecting that we would still be dealing with the same issue over a year later.
Whilst the extra procedural step for many landlords and agents will be a return to the frustrating norm, this news has been released with a welcome addition. There is no need to re-check the identification that had been taken in accordance with the above temporary change. It had been the plan (as detailed in the original blog) that full retrospective checks would be required once the rules reverted to the original pre-covid requirements. This is no longer the case thus avoiding the logistical nightmare that would have been re-checking the ID for all new tenants that were moved in over the last year. Every cloud….
Published 21 April 2021
