Good Afternoon, I hope you are well. I have started the rental process through a landlord listed here. I did pay the holding deposit and submitted required referencing details on OpenRent. The landlord has asked for me to send copies of our passports via email to complete right to rent checks.
(When I did my first rental through OpenRent everything was done through the OpenRent portal so I am nervous to email details outside of the OpenRent platform)
Please could you advise if this is normal?
Openrent doesnt do right to rent checks (see
https://help.openrent.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/115000426332-What-are-my-Right-to-Rent-duties )
so you will have had to supply passport in person or electronically (share code or digital verification process) before. So perfectly normal.
If you are not a uk or Irish national you can just give them a share code. Otherwise they need to see original documents (no video calls) or use a verification service see Landlord's guide to right to rent checks - GOV.UK
So actually sending them copies of passports by email won’t work to do Right to rent checks anyway. You can point that out to LL
You could ask Landlord for copy of their ID and proof of ownership (title deeds, gas safety record etc)
Nrla publish advice here on how to avoid scams
Good luck