URGENT! Right to Rent - what EXACTLY do natural born Brits need to provide?

Hi,Apologies but I've given the student landlord: bank statements, driving license, birth certiicate (UK born, to British parents), letters from college and the new university, letters from the NHS, and completed identity proofing for student AND guarantor. The entire family is British, with nobody in family ever being born outside of the UK as far as we can tell....

(edited 8 months ago)

Reply 1

BaffledOldDuffer

But after looking at the official guidance, the items supplied to the landlord along with the driving license that confirm name and address should exceed the minimum requirements.

Please, can someone sanity check this because as far as I know, the whole point of "right to rent" is to ensure that the renter has a legitimate right to live, work, study and rent in the UK... Rights that are inherent to anyone who's British by birth, and whose parents were also.

"This code has been issued under section 32 of the Immigration Act 2014."
"All landlords in England have a responsibility to prevent those without lawful immigration status from accessing the private rented sector."

The reason for asking is, landlord has at the very last minute decided that what's been provided so far isn't good enough. Even though it's literally everything.

(edited 8 months ago)

Reply 2

TheStupidMoon

I need to make a note of all these dodgy laws turning people into snitches for the state.

Reply 3

martin7

Original post by BaffledOldDuffer

The reason for asking is, landlord has at the very last minute decided that what's been provided so far isn't good enough. Even though it's literally everything.

Has the landlord told you what he/she is expecting you to provide? If not, then you should ask.

Have you pointed your landlord at
https://www.gov.uk/prove-right-to-rent and https://www.gov.uk/prove-right-to-rent/using-other-documents ?

Reply 4

BaffledOldDuffer

Original post by martin7

Thanks for replying. Yes, but the landlord is insisting that HE gets to decide what he'll accept (and that is contradicted by the guidance on the government website).

His initial instructions were all geared around international students with visas and BRPs. Then he insisted on seeing a passport, which our kid doesn't have. He rejected, then changed his mind, over driving license but demanded additional evidence.

So far he's rejected everything we've shown him including the welcome letter from the university which is on headed paper and has the name, job title and signature of the welcoming officer. We've said, if you won't accept it then what WILL you accept - and he just says "read the guidance".

Amongst other things we've read this guide (Mid Sussex council PDF) as well as the landlord guidance PDF - there's really nothing in them to say that NONE of the signed welcome letter from the uni, the Student Finance letter, NHS letters and bank statements can qualify. In fact I've seen evidence in guidance that explicitly says that those artefacts collectively DO cover it, in fact NHS letters are treated as official and equivalent to local government letters if they have the correct name and address on.

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 5

BaffledOldDuffer

On the NHS front, it's explained here:

https://thinkstudent.co.uk/ways-to-prove-your-address-without-bills/

You can't use NHS letters as a substitute for driving license, passport and BRP. But if you do have a qualifying one of those three, then the letters do constitute valid proof of address. Depending on the scenario, there are exclusions for proof of address but it isn't difficult to find checklists online e.g. https://www.whittington.nhs.uk/document.ashx?id=14501

So given the new landlord is objecting on the basis of insufficient evidence of valid proof of address, he's basically saying that the evidence he needs to hand over the keys is far more picky than the evidence one would need to prove the right to work (ie get a job), open a bank account, or even get a DBS (which our kid managed with the same evidence, no problem).