Letting agents have been warned to be on their guard after a tenant vetting firm said the number of prospective tenants it is seeing with fake passports has rocketed.
Speaking to EYE yesterday, Gareth Fowler, managing director of Keysafe Tenant Vetting, said his firm is now encountering prospective tenants with fake passports on “almost a daily basis” as opposed to only “once or twice a month” just a year or two ago.
Under new legislation brought in as part of the Immigration Bill, fines and prison sentences could be imposed on landlords or their agents if checks have not been carried out properly and tenants are subsequently found to have falsified their immigration status.
Fowler said that the chief worry is the noticeable rise in fake UK passports. He said the problem is not simply one for the lower end of the market, but that many of the fake passports his firm is seeing relate to tenants willing to pay “£8,000 or £9,000 a month in Mayfair”.
He added that worryingly, the forged documents often appear genuine to the untrained eye, and are even sometimes accompanied by convincing employment references from bogus limited companies.
Fowler said: “In particular, the old letting agent myth of ‘if they’re from the UK they’re OK’ needs to be put to rest. The same care must be taken when vetting each and every applicant.”
Comments (9)
“Under new legislation brought in as part of the Immigration Bill, fines and prison sentences could be imposed on landlords or their agents if checks have not been carried out properly and tenants are subsequently found to have falsified their immigration status.”
Then you best send us all the tools that passport control have then hadn’t you!
“Then you best send us all the tools that passport control have then hadn’t you!”
Oh, yeah – ‘cos clearly they’ve worked perfectly! ;o)
About a year ago, on a visit to a property where the tenant was in extensive arrears, I discovered that the property was being used to produce false documents/credit cards, passports etc. I called the police and they didn’t even bother to come to the property. They said they would pass the information on to the “relevant” department! I was absolutely astonished. There was even evidence left after the eventual eviction, but it just got cleared out by our contractor. It completely destroyed my belief that this is a serious criminal offence.
A friend of mine, who is a senior police officer, later confirmed to me that it is not something that the police generally get involved with.
Sounds about right! That’s why the are putting on us Agents and the landlords
Ha! They are better prepared than my eyes are! I struggle with ‘Spot the difference’
What were they expecting?! Immigrants to go legit?
Only the ‘illegal’ ones…
Of course, what a silly statement from me 🙂
So tenants object to tenancy fees from Agents but are happy to shell out for a fake passport? All very odd, I think fake passports should be against the law!