An immigration lawyer has warned that a legal minefield strewn with ambiguities awaits landlords and letting agents.

Simon Kenny, a senior solicitor at Moore Blatch who advises employers about immigration law, says there are still far too many unanswered questions posed by the Immigration Act, which will introduce a duty to perform checks on the immigration status of tenants this October.

Kenny said: “For the first time, landlords will effectively have a duty to check immigration status, which is a major change.

“Yet many landlords and agents seem totally unaware of this new legal requirement and could be badly caught out. However, the detail of what actually will be required is not yet clear.

“We know that the requirement is to be implemented this October and that there will be a code of practice. However, this has not yet been published and it is long overdue.

“We also understand that there will be a pilot area before the requirement is rolled out, but we do not know where this will be or how long the trial period will last.

“I have several concerns. For example, will a landlord be fined £3,000 for each and every mistake?

“There is also the question of liability. In which circumstances will it be the landlord or the letting agent who is responsible, if it is the agent who has carried out the checking?

“This has yet to be defined, although my feeling is that it will be the owner of the property who will be responsible in law. I suspect that there will have to be insurance products specifically formulated to cover the issue of liability.

“Another area of concern is what happens if, during the course of checking, it is discovered that the tenant has a legal right to be in this country but is breaching another part of the Immigration Act? Does the landlord or agent have a duty to report this?

“For example, it is common for foreign students to be allowed to live in this country while studying, but not to work more than 20 hours a week. What happens if it is discovered that they are working more than that? Could a landlord who ignores this be in breach of different legal obligations not to assist in immigration offences?”

Kenny also said that the ongoing responsibility to check tenants’ immigration status once they were in situ posed further difficulties.

“Asking a tenant intrusive questions about their rights to be in the UK may impact their right to have ‘quiet enjoyment’ of the property,” he said.

Kenny added: “There has been a similar legal duty imposed on employers for 18 years, so it is well established – but employers are still getting it wrong, and not intentionally so.

“Every year, several thousand employers are prosecuted and fined for unintentional breaches, and the law remains a minefield. I fear it will be the same for landlords and agents.”