Ryanair is not the world’s most popular airline, but news that it has won a recent landmark ruling is very good news for landlords. The airline went to court to appeal against fees levied against it by the Home Office for allowing illegal immigrants into the UK via its flights. The judge’s ruling found in Ryanair’s favour on the basis that the airline’s staff could not be expected to spot cleverly forged passports when even experienced immigration staff had a problem.
In the ruling, the judge said that the regime whereby airline staff have to check passports “offends the basic concepts of justice and indeed rule of law”. Crucially, this could help landlords in the ‘Right to Rent’ debacle.
Right to Rent
Given that landlords are now being forced under threat of fines to check tenants’ identity documents, the same principle could apply. If airline staff cannot spot forgeries, why are landlords expected to do so?
Cast Iron Defence
This raises the prospect that if a landlord is caught out by a cleverly forged passport of a tenant, who subsequently turns out to be an illegal immigrant, he will have a great defence against any action the Home Office chooses to take against him.
“In light of this case and to save the Government money from losing similar actions brought by landlords, we call on the Government to provide better information to landlords about document forgeries and offer more clarity as to the legal responsibility of landlords duped by forged identify documents,” says the RLA.
