The Queen’s Speech has revealed that UK landlords are now expected to
weed out illegal immigrants when they take on new tenants. Employers
will also face the same burden when recruiting new employees. This
change is just one of many introduced in the new “hard line” Immigration Bill.
Hefty fines
Checking the immigration status of potential tenants is no mean feat,
but if a landlord fails to make checks or is fooled by false papers,
they face the prospect of heavy fines of several thousand pounds.
Landlords of buy to let properties will be expected to check whether
tenants have valid passports and visa documentation, although how
they are expected to establish the authenticity of such papers has
not been clarified. Nor has the role of letting agents in the process
been established—many landlords rely on letting agents to find
tenants for their properties and play no active part in the process.
It is thought that the measures are aimed at landlords of HMOs, but
all landlords are likely to be affected.
Further changes for immigrants
In a bid to reduce the spiraling cost of benefits and so-called
“health tourism”, immigrants will soon find it a lot harder to claim
benefits when they arrive in the UK and they won’t qualify for social
housing unless they have lived in the area for at least two years.
Temporary migrants will also have to pay for NHS services instead of
using them for free. The government is probably hoping these changes
will deter thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians from travelling to
the UK once the borders have opened. Whether the changes are likely
to have any effect is debateable.
