Yes, i'm afraid, its more bad news for landlords across Doncaster.

For those Doncaster landlords that don’t know, landlords will need to check the immigration status of any new tenants moving into properties from February 2016 or face a £3,000 fine. It a new piece of legislation called the ‘Right to Rent’ rules.

In recent conversation a landlord from Kirk Sandall wanted to know how much of a real issue was ‘Right to Rent’ was to him and his portfolio of properties across Doncaster. I was able to tell him, the last available figures (from a couple of years ago) show that 174 people (whom were registered as Non-UK Born Short-term Residents) moved into private rented accommodation in the Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council area in. If all of those people weren’t supposed to be in the UK, that would be a fine of £522,000 to the landlords of the town.

It doesn’t sound a lot when you think there are 308,100 residents in Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council area, and of those the vast majority were born in the UK. But Doncaster is a cosmopolitan city as the country of birth of the residents in the Doncaster Metropolitan Council area can be split down as follows:

However, it must also be recognised that landlords, by checking up on tenants, could potentially be accused of discrimination under the Equality Act. This is a real minefield for landlords, especially when you consider that not all of the Europeans in the area necessarily have the right to live in the UK either.

In summary Doncaster landlords will need to check and retain copies of certain documents that show a potential tenant has the right to live in the UK.

Acceptable evidence include…

• UK Passport
• EEA Passport/Identity card
• Travel document or Permanent Residence Card showing indefinite leave to remain
• Paperwork from Home Office stating their Immigration status
• Certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen.

This recent legislation is just another layer in the ever increasing pressure put on landlords in South Yorkshire and landlords across the UK in general.