Right to Rent has been part of letting agency life for long enough that most branches assume they have it nailed. The fines being issued tell a different story. The rules have not changed dramatically, but enforcement has tightened and the small slips that used to be tolerated are now flagged.
Checking originals, not copies
A scanned passport emailed in advance is not a Right to Rent check. The document has to be inspected in the presence of the tenant, or via a permitted video call against the original. A surprising number of branches still accept a forwarded PDF and tick the box.
The 28-day window
Checks must be done in the 28 days before the tenancy starts. A check done six weeks early and never refreshed is, technically, no check at all.
Time-limited rights
Where a tenant has a time-limited right to remain in the UK, a follow-up check is due before that right expires. Diarise it at the point of the first check; do not rely on remembering it.
A short audit of your last twenty new tenancies will tell you whether your process is genuinely robust. The branches that come through that audit cleanly are usually the ones who have given one named person responsibility for it.
