Q. I HAVE heard rumour that landlords will soon be responsible for checking the immigration status of tenants before allowing them to move in, is this true and if so, how are we supposed to go about this?

A. Yes this is in entirely likely.

The Immigration Act 2014 has introduced a requirement that landlords carry out checks to ensure that tenants have the right to reside in the UK.

Landlords who rent to illegal immigrants could face civil penalty fines of up to £3,000.

This will be piloted in the West Midlands area, comprising Birmingham, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley and Wolverhampton from the December 1 and based on the success of this pilot, may be rolled out nationally in 2015.

The requirement seems to be that agents/landlords must take copies of passports and biometric residence permits for prospective tenants, to check that the document is original, valid, and actually relates to said tenant and to hold these for a year after the tenancy has ended.

A driving licence is not sufficient as people can hold UK driving licences for a long time after their visa has expired.

If agents/landlords are not able to get these documents we will be expected to check with the Home Office, who have made a commitment to respond within two days.

Part of the issue with this is knowing or deciding who to ask for this paperwork, landlords/agents should be taking photo ID for all tenants but not all UK nationals have passports or even driving licences, and it is not always obvious by a person’s skin colour or accent whether they are British or not.

Exemptions are as follows: this will not apply to existing tenancies, to those under 18, to student accommodation where the tenants are referred through a college or university, local authority housing or hostels and refuges.

However, my concern is that this will encourage racism and create more work and red tape for agencies and those private landlords who are already diligent.

This will ultimately results in more cost and time wasted and push those rogue landlords, which this is aiming to target, further into an illegal black market leaving vulnerable tenants more vulnerable than they already are.

Should this be put in place nationally, we agents will be relying on our professional bodies such as The Association of Residential Letting Agents to offer us advice and training as to how to deal with this, and on our referencing agencies to put processes in place to ensure we comply.

I would urge private landlords to either use the service of a well-qualified and regulated agent in finding a tenant or to at least use the service of a well reputed referencing agency to ensure that they are also compliant.

Please continue to send in your letting related questions to rose@sawyersestateagents.co.uk