Hi, my Ukrainian tenants want to add their son as resident. He has just arrive in the UK so has no history here. Can they be set up as guarantors for their son? How do I add him as a resident not a tenant?
He can be added as a permitted occupier. When I do this I email them terms attached to what a permitted occupier is, they basically have no rights and can be required to leave at any time by tenant or landlord
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Thatâs great. Thank you
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just curious, why do you need to add him at all?
Just to make an official record of an additional resident who is permitted occupier incase you need to evict them later on. Also if he is over 18 you will need to do a right to rent check.
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So if i have a tenant who has her boyfriend living with her, with my permission, and I evict her, he doesnât have to leave?
Tatemono
May be the way I phrased my last post has led to some misunderstanding. The boy friend is not a tenant so has no rights under the tenancy. The landlord should be aware that they could be fined 10k for not performing a right to rent check on anyone over the age of 18 living in their property. I also take your point that sometimes it can pay to turn a blind eye.
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Because otherwise he would be an illegal resident and wonât be covered by rent guarantee. Guests can normally only stay up to about 2 weeks.
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He would be classed as a tenant but without any signed agreement and no credit checks and illegal. If she left he could remain and is not bound by the contract.
Can someone point me to some guidance that confirms this please? Cheers
The last time I posted an exert from the net it got lost in moderation. OR will have guidance for âlandlords right to rent checks.â Basically since 2015 every landlord has been legally required to conduct right to rent checks on their tenants. The maximum fine for not performing the check was doubled last month from
ÂŁ5 - 10K for a first offence and ÂŁ20K if you do it again.
So the government documentation is quite unhelpful here. Firstly it says
You must check that a tenant or lodger can legally rent your residential property in England.
This implies that if someone rents the property they must be checked and that if they live at the property but do not rent it ( e.g. 18 just old child of a parent who rents) they donât have to be checked.
But then, immediately beneath this, it states
Before the start of a new tenancy, you must check all tenants aged 18 and over, even if:
theyâre not named on the tenancy agreement
thereâs no tenancy agreement
the tenancy agreement is not in writing
And this implies that the 18 year old in my example does need be checked.
However it gives no guidance at all about what happens when someone moves in who is not renting after the tenancy starts.
Furthermore, if you dig into more technical guidance you read
Under section 22 of the Immigration Act 2014 (âthe 2014 Actâ), a landlord should not authorise an adult to occupy property as their only or main home under a residential tenancy agreement in England,
This seems, again, to imply someone in occupancy under a âresidential tenancy agreementâ ie a tenant
Then later it says
Landlords should apply checks to all occupiers, whether or not they may already believe the occupiers to be legally in the UK.
This making the rule seemingly apply to anyone living in the property. Itâs not helpful that the government doesnât seem to define what a tenant is anywhere that i could find.
Therefore, in practice, itâs worth covering yourself by conducting right to rent checks on anyone over 18 not only at the time the tenancy starts but subsequently for anyone who may move in.
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Government guidance should NEVER be relied upon.
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what would be more helpful would be if you could refer us to what we CAN rely on thenâŚ
The legislation.
Government guidance is inevitably written before a bill or other statute becomes law and is often a civil servantâs impression of a Ministers intentions rather than what has actually been drafted by the lawyers.
Er⌠The info on gov.uk cites the legislation soâŚ
But you implied it contains misleading advice. If you want to know what the legislation requires, its best read the text of the law itself.
Can we assume you have read the legislation and know what it states in regard to what a tenant is defined as and therefore who is subject to right to rent checks? If so, please donât keep us in suspense.
I was making a general point about Government guidance, but to answer your question, my understanding is that Right to Rent applies to any adult over the age of 18 who is living at the property, whether a tenant or not.
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This might give more explanation as well.