Landlords and letting agents have been urged to check that a digital identity provider is specifically approved for Right to Rent before using it to verify tenants.

Landlords with properties in England must check that all tenants over the age of 18 have a legal right to rent before they sign a tenancy agreement – with penalties of up to five years in prison for getting it wrong.

From today (1 October) landlords need to use a registered digital verification provider, known as a RtR DVSP, if these checks are carried out electronically, although they can still carry out a manual right to rent check, using hard copy documents, a Home Office online right to rent check or a virtual right to rent check using a RtR DVSP.

Services

Identity verification platform ComplyCube says landlords are likely to miss that the government register lists individual services, not companies, meaning that many providers are on it for Right to Work or DBS checks but not for Right to Rent.

“Being on the government’s digital verification register doesn’t automatically mean a provider can perform Right to Rent checks,” explains CEO Dr Tarek Nechma. "Imagine a prospective tenant goes through a digital verification check through a government registered provider. They may feel completely protected. But, in reality, if that provider is registered to the wrong scheme, the resulting identity check does not provide a real statutory excuse."

There is another version of the same mistake that happens when landlords put a tenant with an eVisa through the British-and-Irish-passport digital route, he tells LandlordZONE. "Typically, people with British and Irish passports or cards can use the digital identity scheme. On the other hand, someone with an eVisa proves their status by generating a share code through their UKVI account. Using the right services for the right applicant through the right route is what protects you."

Protection

Nechma says putting every applicant through the same identity app may feel simpler, but that using an app isn’t what creates the statutory protection, it’s using the right service, for the right applicant, through the right route.

“The opposite mistake matters too,” he adds. “If landlords start rejecting applicants simply because their status takes a different route or longer to verify, they risk turning an immigration-compliance process into a discrimination problem and losing perfectly eligible tenants.”

Landlords can receive a penalty of up to £10,000 per tenant for a first breach and can go up to £20,000 for a repeat offence. These fines are per occupier, so a property with many illegal tenants can result in several penalties at once.

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