UK Right to Rent and Right to Work Document Checker

About the UK Right to Rent and Right to Work Document Checker

Before someone starts work in the UK, the employer must check that they have the right to work; before a tenancy of a home in England starts, the landlord must check that every adult who will live there has the right to rent. A check made the way the Home Office prescribes gives a statutory excuse: no civil penalty if the person later turns out not to have the right. This checker takes what the person has shown you — a passport, a share code, a pair of documents, a Checking Service notice — and says which list it is in, whether the excuse is continuous or time-limited, how to make the check, when the follow-up is due, what to keep and until when, and the penalty without a check.

Without a pass the free preview shows the list, the kind of excuse, the timing tests, the steps and the records, with every date and penalty worked out hidden. A Premium pass shows the follow-up date, the record-keeping end and the penalty, and unlocks the PDF, Excel, CSV, copy and print.

Right to work: the three ways to check

The employer’s guide allows three prescribed checks, made before the person starts work:

• A manual check of original documents from List A or List B, with the person present in person or on a live video call while you hold the originals: obtain, check (genuine, the person’s own, photos and dates of birth consistent, permission not ended, work within any restriction), copy each document so the copy cannot be altered, and record the date of the check.
• A Home Office online check with the person’s share code and date of birth. eVisa holders can prove the right only this way; British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code.
• A digital check through a registered RtW DVSP for British or Irish passports and Irish passport cards, up to six months past their expiry date.

List A gives a continuous excuse. List B Group 1 gives an excuse until the permission ends, so check again on or before that day. List B Group 2 needs a Positive Verification Notice from the Employer Checking Service, which gives six months. Keep the copies for the employment and for two years after it ends, then destroy them securely.

Right to rent: England only

Right to rent applies to residential property in England (GOV.UK). Check every adult who will live in the property as their only or main home, named on the agreement or not, and check everyone: only checking people you think are not British is against the law. No check is needed for social housing, a care home, hospice or hospital, a hostel or refuge, a mobile home, student accommodation, accommodation from a local authority or with the job, or a lease of 7 years or longer.

A check of someone with a time-limited right must be made no earlier than 28 days before the tenancy starts. List A (Group 1, or any two Group 2 documents) gives a continuous excuse. List B gives an excuse until the latest of 12 months after the check, the end of the permission and the expiry of the document; a Positive Right to Rent Notice from the Landlord Checking Service gives 12 months, and so does a visitor’s passport with evidence of arrival in the last six months. Keep copies for the tenancy and one year after; if a follow-up check fails, report it to the Home Office.

The civil penalties

For each illegal worker the code of practice starts at £45,000 for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat breach within three years, less £5,000 for a report to the Home Office with a Unique Reference Number and £5,000 for active co-operation; a first breach with effective right to work practices and both reductions gets a Warning Notice. For right to rent the landlords’ code sets £5,000 per lodger and £10,000 per occupier for a first breach, and £10,000 and £20,000 for a repeat breach. A first penalty paid within 21 days is 30% less under the Fast Payment Option. Knowingly employing an illegal worker is also a crime, with up to five years in prison and an unlimited fine.

Limitations

• The lists are the Home Office’s for the check date entered here; the codes say which version applies to a check made earlier.
• The checker does not read documents or share codes: it tells you how to check and what the result means.
• Students with restricted hours, Crown Dependency documents and the wider Scheme for workers, sub-contractors and online matching services have rules of their own in the guide; read it for those cases.
• The penalty shown is the code’s amount per person for the facts entered; the Home Office decides each case.

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