Current Property News: Landlords no longer need to be Border Guards.

By Steve Roulstone

Government scale down legality checks.

 In another climb down the Government took a massive step backwards last weekend from asking Landlords to ensure all Tenants are legally present in the Country. It is being reported that concerns over the risks surrounding too much red tape being introduced are responsible and that it will only be introduced in areas that can be highlighted as currently causing concern, such as some boroughs of West London.

 Once again I have to point out that the debate about the requirement and what the impact of asking Landlords to be responsible misses out upon, is that professional referencing already supply confirmation through the provision of a National Insurance Number and specific right to work permits. This tells me quite clearly that Landlords that would wish to know before allowing occupation already have the ability to do so.

 It would therefore be correct in my opinion to ensure those who already carry out such checks should not be drawn in too yet another hoop to jump through, because work and income would already be confirmed. Therefore those who do not check rely upon income from other sources, such as benefit payments or the black market.

 Whilst I would agree that such Landlords are taking advantage of ‘street’ circumstances, it strikes me that the authorities need to turn their attention to the very areas (Benefit fraud and the Black economy) where methods of policing and prosecuting miscreants’ already exist. Certainly when set against piling yet more requirements upon the Rental Industry, where no policing exists for either these schemes or indeed for much of the myriad of legislation that has already been introduced over the last few years, such as HMO’s and Tenants Deposit schemes.

 So legislation is discussed, promised, withdrawn (and according to some reports been the cause of the Prime Minister turning “puce” when advised of the withdrawal) without involving the industry or the specialists who administer the professional bodies. It seems that lessons are just never learnt that the people who know best how the industry works are the very ones who administer it from within. All that has to happen is for somebody to ask!