From today all private landlords in England and Wales can only let their property to an adult who is legally in the UK. This, of course, turns private individuals into immigration officials, required to ask every potential tenant for their immigration documents. Renting a property to someone who isn’t legally in the UK carries a maximum fine of £3,000 – if the new Immigration Bill that is currently going through Parliament becomes law, it will carry a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison.
And the position of people who have submitted their application in time and are therefore in the UK legally, but are temporarily without any paperwork to prove their status? Probably not good, as landlords are likely to worry about the consequences for themselves and so take the safe route of just not renting their property to someone whose visa is about to expire.
