If you wish to rent a private residential property to a tenant, you are now legally obliged to check whether or not your prospective tenant has the Right to Rent.

You must check anyone aged 18 or over who pays to use your property as their main home, eg. tenants, sub-tenants and paying house guests.

If you’ve bought a property that already has tenants, you need proof that their last landlord did the check. You’ll still be responsible for carrying out further checks on your tenants in future.

There are certain exemptions, which you can find in the Home Office’s Code of practice on illegal immigrants and private rented accommodation.

You can find more information on being a landlord and renting out a room on the Gov.uk website.