Right to rent Checks

akkers

I have tenants who have European passports with settlement status.

With the new regulations do I need to take fresh copies and carry out an official govt check? Or is a manual check of documents sufficient?

SiliconChip

I don't know, but to be on the safe side I'd suggest you work your way through the official guidance.

https://www.gov.uk/view-right-to-rent

poseidon1

Suggest you get yourself up to speed on the new code of practice affecting landlords as at 1st October, you will then discover you have to run a digital check on tenant's right to rent as european passport holders

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/right-to-rent-landlords-code-of-practice/code-of-practice-for-landlords-and-their-agents-the-right-to-rent-scheme-for-landlords-and-their-agents-1-october-2026

cfmonk

Nothing to redo for existing tenants if the original check was right at the time. The new code says old checks are judged against the rules in force when you did them.

So it comes down to when the tenancy started. Before 1 July 2021 an EU passport was a valid check on its own, and the landlord's guide says there's no requirement to go back over those. After that a passport alone stopped counting, because settled status only exists online. If yours started later and a passport copy is all you've got, ask for a share code now and save the result page with the date on it.

HouseHuntingAmy

Reading this from the tenant side, the share-code route really is the painless option. The tenant generates the code free on GOV.UK (takes a few minutes and it lasts 30 days), the landlord runs it through the official online checker and saves the result page - and doing it online is what gives the landlord the statutory excuse if anything is ever questioned later, which a manual photocopy doesnt.

The summary above about existing tenancies matches the guidance too: checks get judged against the rules in force at the time they were done, so properly-done old checks dont need redoing. The only group caught in the middle are post-July-2021 tenancies where only a passport copy was taken - for those, asking the tenant for a share code now is exactly the right fix.