Renting to non-UK nationals - what do I need to consider please?

Landlord Discussion
1

Hi There,

We met with a potential tenant yesterday, who has moved to the UK from South Africa. He has British citizenship (although of course I would need to check his passport). He is currently living with family who have already returned to the UK.

He moved over to secure employment and a home for him and his wife who is still in South Africa and will join him when he can prove that he is settled.

I had to say to him that I would need to investigate what my responsibilities would be before I could proceed, but also could anyone provide any words of wisdom or experience on this matter.

I don’t want to rule out this tenant without valid reasons, but at the same time I don’t want to open a can of worms!

Thanks

2

I had a potential similar tenant When I asked for a guarrantor as well, he faded away!

3

As I understand it, the tenant must have the legal right to live in the UK. If this potential tenant has a British passport, I think you are covered.

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4

I am assuming as the gentleman is a British citizen he has a UK passport, so that is fine, it is more what I would require to see for his wife when she joins him - presumably a VISA in her passport? Or are further documents provided which grant permission to reside in the UK?

5

You need to go onto the .gov website and search for landlords checking service, they search potential tenants for free and return a report to you. I just did this myself

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6

Do you mean they will TELL you what to do youself in the procedure,? I cannot find where they will check a tenant FOR you but can find whe.re they TELL you how to check a tenant

7

Thank you. I will check this out, I did do some searching on the government website. I didn’t want my lack of knowledge on the requirements turning down a decent honest tenant - as I
think that has happened to him numerous times as soon as he says he is South African!

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8

Excellent, have found the page and gone through the various questions. It looks like the key is a UK ‘certificate of entitlement to the right of abode’ (in their current or expired foreign passport).

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9

If you join the LNA they have some great seminars to help landlords and free advice to members. The yearly fee is tax deductable

10

That’s it Beverley3, I filled it all in and got back a pdf telling me that I could rent to them, when I could rent out to them until, and when I needed to do a re-check again, it only took 2 working days, they emailed asking for one piece of information that they also needed which I was able to ask the tenant for. Good service! And you also then have a government email stating that you have legally checked too.

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11

Claire 9 can you send a link for this service please. Is this a private company or the goverment department?

12

Colin3 Google ‘landlords checking service right to rent’ it’ll come up. Free service direct from .gov website

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13

https://eforms.homeoffice.gov.uk/outreach/lcs-application.ofml

That is the form you can fill it and get a report back.

And the second link is the check list of questions you can go through which confirms what you need to check for. Both useful.

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14

Beverley 3 Brilliant thanks for that .You learn something new every day Regards Colin

15

Hi, I accepted people from overseas, and an additional problem was getting proper references and financial info. One time although Openrent sent the reference enquiry they got very little back, and because it took a little longer in the end I accepted anyway with less info. I would advise getting verified renting history that you can contact yourself.
Hope that might help

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16

Thanks Sally, I must admit I wondered about referencing and certainly credit check too

  • due to limited credit history in the UK!