Mmmm ! landlords to become imigration officers

Zorz_2

I can't comment on Canada (never been there), but I've seen how the system works in the States. My intention though is not to compare those countries but to see what can be done here.

I still maintain that your suggestion is inefficient and actually potentially dangerous. Having landlords working as proxy of the UKBA, wouldn't stop for instance this benefits fraud enterprise. I am emphatically against giving landlords my NINO. Only the HMRC, the DWP, my employer and the bank that holds my ISA need to know. Giving more people this information, along with date of birth, passport photo, the tenant's address and access to their mailbox (as a LL will very likely have) is a recipe for identity theft.

I do agree that government branches could check someone's immigration status at the point of registering for services, for instance when you apply for a drivers license (this is what other countries already do).

You wrote that everyone staying here legally (apart from tourists) has a NINO. That's not correct. How about a foreign student who hasn't got a student loan and won't work part time during their term? Or a foreign spouse/partner, who doesn't work or claim benefits.

Finally, a lot of illegal immigrants do so to escape war or persecution. You may block them access to some services, but that won't stop them from coming. What you'll achieve this way is that instead of having a normal-ish tenancy, you will drive them even more below the radar. They will still be desperate enough to stay in sheds with beds.

propertyman

I think that you are imputing your opinion into what I am suggesting. Lets make it simple you give me your NI number which I (well Mrs Propertyman) put into the site which I register to use. Up pops your picture I know it's you we move on.

I see your NI number which says P xxxxx 9-15 and I know that measn that you are here on a work visa expring 9-15, its a 6 month AST we move on.

Even if I pass on your DOB and NI number which are on the application forms for a lot of referencing agencies anyway, any one can enter that number and get your picture.

As for benefits scams I turn up to claim they pop the number in and up pops you, scam killed.

As for those who are illegal due to push factors, I am making that choice unsustainable. If they cannot leave safely then they present themselves at a port when they arrive or at a police station and claim asylum, not disappear.

If they choose to go to beds in sheds or employers who dont follow the rules, then they know if caught they are being returned without any chance of asylum, and the landlords under the draft bill will be prosecuted.

Smith_007

propertyman wrote: »

The one thing Smith 007 doesn't mention is that doing something about this will STOP landlords and employers exploiting degrading and abusing the vulnerable.

By encouraging them to take cash-in-hand tenants?
:rotfl:

propertyman wrote: »

2 Agents and employers don’t get “access” to anything, they can upload or post the info and access a site which says "Name dob NI number" and up pops my picture.

AHHHHH!
So that is what this is about.....
National Identity Cards (by any other name)

Sir will find that idea was quite rightly blown out of the water some years ago. Papers Please :eek:

In order to address your rants......
If people are here illegally, (politics of this aside) then the problem needs to be addressed at the borders. Passing on the problem to landlords is unreasonable, unethical and very very impractical.

Frankly, it is cheap party political points scoring of the worst sort. I'm surprised any intelligent person would be taken in by it (Daily Fail readers aside).

propertyman

So it took you several day to come up with irrelevant arguments LOL.

This is about verification- your NI number is used in a number of ways and is open to abuse as it works against paper entries and records, if checked at all.

There is no "papers or cards please", just an image verification by authorised users.

Yes immigration needs to be addressed at the border but that doesn't take account of the illegal entrants or those who overstay and dissappear. Your thinking is therefore as simplistic as the Daily Whail, mine is not.

Exploitative landlords may already take cash on Friday tenants, but currently can take advantage of the " how do I know if its valid" defence (and as employers too),and this removes that excuse.

This makes illegal immigration untenable by denying access to services and criminalises landlords ( and employers) who exploit them as they have little excuse.

The present arrangement allows a huge grey area of apparent legitamacy which is being exploited and need not exist.

It not only makes illegal smuggling housing and employment far less tenable but forces illegals to apply for asylum and surrender.

Smith_007

propertyman wrote: »

There is no "papers or cards please", just an image verification by authorised users.

:rotfl:
Keep digging!

.......because as I said earlier, national identity cards and the identity database they represent were dismissed as costly, intrusive and impractical some years ago.

propertyman wrote: »

Exploitative landlords may already take cash on Friday tenants, but currently can take advantage of the " how do I know if its valid" defence

Sorry,
But I suspect you are now either trolling, or genuinely too naive to see that a cash-in-hand landlord cannot be proven to be renting out a house to anybody.

Peter_Parsons

The bill went before the Public Bill committee in Parliament today. There's a report on the BBC website - search for "landlord visa checks" (I would post a link but the forum won't let me).