In the first six months of the Right to Rent pilot scheme, 109 illegal immigrants were detected.
By mid-September, just nine had been removed from the UK, with a further five pending removal.
Another nine had been ordered to report to Immigration Enforcement, but had failed to do so.
The Home Office yesterday published its evaluation of the Right to Rent pilot scheme that has been taking place in the West Midlands.
It did so, as it simultaneously announced that Right to Rent – the legal requirement for landlords or their agents to check the immigration status of tenants – will be extended across England from February 1.
According to the report – which covers only the first six months of the pilot, from December 1 until May 31 – very few landlords or agents were penalised, with five civil penalty notices issued.
There were also 13 referral notices served.
Right to Rent was introduced by the 2014 Immigration Act, and the West Midlands pilot used civil penalties.
Under the new 2015 Immigration Act, the penalties become criminal sanctions.
The report notes that out of 44 letting agents in the region, 36 felt informed about the scheme, along with 70 out of 114 landlords.
It also notes agents’ concerns that the pilot scheme was only being observed by “responsible” players in the sector, and that rogue elements were not complying.
Compliant agents were concerned that immigrants unable to provide documentation might be driven into, and exploited by, this part of the sector.
Along with online surveys, the evaluation used interviews and focus groups, and there was also a mystery shopping exercise.
The report found that the Landlords Checking Service had made 109 decisions on potential tenants’ Right to Rent, resulting in 95 yes decisions and 15 no decisions.
There were 37 enforcement visits resulting directly from a Right to Rent referral.
In total, 109 individuals who were in the UK illegally were idenitified, of whom 63 were previously unknown to the Home Office.
The mystery shopping exercise found that a higher proportion of black and minority ethnic ‘shoppers’ were asked to provide more information during their rental inquiries.
However, says the report, they were “more likely to be offered properties” compared with white British ‘shoppers’.
Before the pilot scheme, 53 out of 64 letting agents always required photo ID. This rose to 60 out of 64 after the scheme began.
Letting agents felt that overall, the scheme had no obvious impact on the market.
A higher proportion of landlords (27 out of 35) said the scheme increased their workload, compared with 26 out of 56 letting agents.
Of the 26 agents who said their workload had increased, reasons given included having to explain the scheme to tenants and landlords; having to monitor when follow-up checks were due; and dealing with unfamiliar paperwork.
There were three “pulse check” surveys done at different points of the evaluation.
At the first “pulse check” agents were asked how they planned to carry out the Right to Rent checks. Out of 41 respondents, 20 said they would do the checks in-house, 16 said they would use a tenancy referencing service and five did not know.
Critics may believe that the full evaluation is low on numbers – which could be regarded as surprising since the pilot area includes the sprawling city of Birmingham.
For example, its largest “pulse check” survey was with a total of 124 respondents, but these included agents, local authorities, housing associations and Home Office enforcement staff.
The appraisal report is here
‘In total, 109 individuals who were in the UK illegally were idenitified (sic), of whom 63 were previously unknown to the Home Office’…so 46 were already ‘known’ to the Home Office..and the penalty for them is?
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Can the person routinely ‘disliking’ these comments make their own comment in support of estate agents being unpaid border agents despite the total incompetence of the Home Office so we can all see what we are evidently missing?
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Dead stick i’m afraid 🙁
Dislikers hide in the shadows and usually work for whatever entity we are venting our frustrations on and very very rarely show themselves.
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If I got 9 in 109 valuations on, I’d be sacked
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How utterly reassuring; 46 known and 63 unknown. Ok, they are basically asking that we do their job for them, safe in the knowledge that they have absolutely no intention of even dealing with those already known to them!
It begs the question as to how they are know? (perhaps they are friends on Facebook!) Another reassuring note being that only a ‘few’ agents/landlords have been penalised! What about the Muppets in the Home Office that knew the 46??
Oh and on a final note: clearly the ‘rogue’ agents are not complying. I have been having trouble finding an article of late that doesn’t mention rogue agents!
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“The mystery shopping exercise found that a higher proportion of black and minority ethnic ‘shoppers’ were asked to provide more information during their rental inquiries.”
And you will do to remember that you caused this by making untrained Estate Agents and Landlords do your job and threaten them with a fine if they fail as well as you did at it.
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Brilliant so even if you do find somebody who has no legal right to reside in the UK the government will still probably not do anything about it.
Wow great bit of legislation!
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So 46 of these were known to the authorities – why I ask are 46 know illegals allowed to be out there trying to rent when they should have their own specialist accommodation in a detention center. More smoke screens from government as part of its “Landlord Bashing campaign.”
AN MP involved in this legislation assured me it was light touch legislation. Well Mr MP making people criminal is not light touch. It they are politicians you just have to accept the truth is never the truth as the rest of us understand it.
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Worrying. …………….
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Our survey said – POINTLESS
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Looks like we have a Home Office employee disliking what we are all saying!!
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You could well be right – must be a rogue department!
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