A lawyer says that agents must report to the landlord the outcomes of all checks.

Rachel Harvey, solicitor at Cartright King, said that Right to Rent responsibility lies with the landlord, as the person who authorises occupation of the property in return for rent.

However, liability can transfer under the scheme to letting agents by written agreement.

Harvey said: “The written agreement must be signed by both parties and agree terms and timescales and include a clause saying the agent takes legal responsibility as well as stating that they accept full responsibility for paying the penalty should a statutory excuse not be accepted.

“Where a landlord and an agent enter a written agreement stating that the agent will be responsible for taking the steps necessary to establish an excuse against a penalty, the agent will be liable for a penalty if a breach of the scheme is found and they have failed to undertake sufficient checks and report the outcome of these to the landlord and make appropriate reports to the Home Office where necessary.

“Following a check the agent must report to the landlord the outcome of the check.

“If they report that the check shows someone does not have the right to rent and the landlord insists on entering into the tenancy nonetheless, and the agent has informed the landlord in writing, then the liability passes back to the landlord.”

Harvey also said that if the landlord meets the tenant and there is no agreement in place for Right to Rent checks to be made by an agency, then the landlord has responsibility to do the checks – even where the agent does other referencing.

With reference to our other story today about when Right to Rent checks must be made, we should make it clear that Cartright King was not one of the law firms we asked about the timescale. We only asked it about the contractual relationships between landlords and agents in relation to the Right to Rent regime.