Tenant who is to be joined by family who is not yet in the country

Landlord Discussion Legal
1

Advise needed. Just went through a negative experience with two tenants who looked perfect on paper, and seemed perfect but proved super immature and irresponsible. property on the market again and most viewing requests come from Ladies employed as nurses whose husbands and children is still abroad. looking at the tenant’s name, they are probably coming from Africa. How do I approach this? should I even show them the property? They meet the rent criteria but what about the right to live in the UK, references etc?

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The government recently announced that they would be putting a stop to care workers coming over on work visas being allowed to bring their families with them. It’s probably no coincidence that your getting a lot of interest from foreign nurses. May be there is a deadline they are trying to beat.

Anyway, you have a legal requirement to check their Right To Rent status. For foreign nationals they must provide you with what is known as a Share Code. You go on to the government website and enter the code and all their information will come up. You can request the Share Code before the viewing and allow them to view if everything is satisfactory. You will need to do this for all family members. If you choose to proceed with them you can then request employment references or better still pay for a professional reference check.

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thanks. what do I do with the spouses who are not in the country yet? how do I check anything. should I avoid this type of tenants as I might not have enough knowledge of how to proceed

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Every tenant has to have a confirmed Right To Rent when the tenancy starts. I have just done a quick Google search on the latest immigration rules which was announced on 4th December so only 2 months ago. as It states “social care workers on foreign work visas will no longer be able to bring their dependants with them.” I would ask them where they work to insure they are nurses working in a hospital rather than calling themselves nurses and working in a care home. If in doubt move on to the next applicant.

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