“Who would want to move to Stamford in weather like this?”
was what one landlord said to me as we shook hands outside his property the
other afternoon. It was dark, windy and cold.
It had been raining most of the day and it was the last appointment of the
day at 4.45pm. I will admit, as I had been out of the office all day, I was
looking forward to getting home, putting the heating on, and watching 'Location, Location, Location'. But this landlord
lived in neighbouring Peterborough and this was the earliest he could do.
It turned out he had been self-managing the property himself
over the last few years, but was worried with all the new legislation that had been
introduced recently. He was particularly concerned about the up and coming
‘Right to Rent’ legislation, and as his tenant had handed in their notice
recently, he called us for our opinion in time for the next tenancy.For those Stamford landlords that don’t know, landlords will need to check the immigration status of any new tenants moving into properties from February 2016 or face a £3,000 fine. It is called the 'Right to Rent' rules. However, tenants should also be aware that as well as traditional landlords, tenants who sub-let rooms and homeowners who take in lodgers, must also check the right of prospective tenants to reside in the UK.
Our landlord from Peterborough wanted to know how much of a
real issue was ‘Right to Rent’ in Stamford. I was able to tell him. The last
available figures (from a couple of years ago) show that 31 people (whom were
registered as 'Non-UK Born Short-term
Residents') moved into private rented accommodation in the South Kesteven District Council area in
one year alone. If all of those people weren’t supposed to be in the UK,
that would be a fine of £93,000 to the landlords of the town.
It doesn’t sound a lot
when you think there are 19,701 residents in Stamford, and of those, 18,086 people
(or 91.80%) were born in the UK. But Stamford
is a growing cosmopolitan town, and the country of birth of the residents in Stamford
can be split down as follows:
·
UK 91.80%
·
Ireland 0.61%
·
Europe 3.87%
·
Africa 0.97%
·
Middle East and Asia 1.68%
·
Americas and Caribbean 0.81%
·
Australia and Pacific region 0.22%
However, it must
also be recognised that landlords, by checking up on tenants, could
potentially be accused of discrimination under the Equality Act. This is a real minefield for landlords,
especially when you consider that not all
of the 763 Europeans in the area necessarily have the right to live in the UK
either.
In a nutshell, Stamford
landlords will need to check and retain copies of certain documents that show a
potential tenant has the right to live in the UK. These include:-
·
UK Passport
·
EEA Passport/Identity card
·
Travel document or Permanent Residence Card
showing indefinite leave to remain
·
Paperwork from Home Office stating their Immigration
status
·
Certificate of registration or naturalisation as
a British citizen
So what did our landlord do?
Well after our chat, he asked us to find a tenant and manage
the property for him - he had been reading the Stamford Property Blog for a
while and because of the knowledge we impart to the landlords of Stamford, we
obviously know what we are talking about.
Even better news for him, even though this would cost him agency fees, I
was able to get him an additional £50 per month for his property (when we found
him a tenant one week later)
Now, together with the peace of mind we will keep him the
right side of the law and put a stop to midnight phone calls complaining about
dripping taps, it was a win-win situation for everyone.
