Prisk was quizzed by MPs on proposals outlined in the Queen’s Speech for landlords to be responsible for checking their tenants’ immigration status.
At a DCLG session yesterday, he said he did not intend the rules to be unduly onerous: “What we’re asking for is all landlords undertake that basic check to see people are who they are and they are entitled to be here.”
“The intention is to make it light-touch. We’re working on the proposals at the moment and we don’t want to make it unduly onerous. The idea is to make sure someone takes a reasonable step to check someone’s identity and that would naturally be a passport.”
Prisk dismissed suggestions of a national registration scheme for landlords but suggested the selective licensing scheme could be extended: “If there’s a good argument demonstrated that a significant proportion of local authorities would welcome an extension I would certainly be happy to look at the evidence.”
Mandatory house of multiple occupation licenses had helped prevent ‘beds in sheds’ scenarios in London boroughs such as Ealing, he added.
Commenting on the proposals, National Landlords Association chief executive Richard Lambert described thoroughly referencing tenants prior to offering a tenancy as standard best practice: “Tenant checks should include not only an identity check, as suggested, but also whether the tenant has any County Court Judgments, possible aliases and include references from their employer and a previous landlord. Such checks should highlight any immigration irregularities.”
