In December 2014, the government launched a pilot scheme in the Midlands and Birmingham areas making landlords responsible for checking that any tenants moving into a property or living in a property of theirs had a legal right to rent a property in the UK under Immigration Act 2014. In August 2015 an announcement was made that this scheme would be rolled out nationally and applied to every landlord in the country.

What this means is that every landlord has to be sure that their tenant is who they say they are and has the correct permissions to live in the country for the time contracted. This policy has proven to be very controversial as landlords will be liable to a civil penalty if they get this wrong and it has added an additional burden of paperwork on the already struggling private rented sector.

A number of concerns have been raised by the sector in the day to day operation of this new rule. For example, the expectations upon private landlords and agents alike to be experts in checking documents and the potential discrimination of foreign tenants, are things that landlords have never really had to consider before. There was also a promise of 'landlords will not be expected to evict' which was initially made but now seems to have been revoked. All this led to a promise from the Immigration Office of 'light touch' enforcement and in practice it does seemed to have gone smoothly, but more changes are now afoot.