Homeless Charity Helped Target Rough Sleepers To Deport

A leading homelessness charity has worked with Home Office patrols as they go out on the streets in search of rough sleepers deemed to be in the UK illegally to arrest and deport. St Mungo’s is one of the largest providers of homelessness outreach services in the UK. Its website says it is “here for every step of the journey away from homelessness” and its outreach teams work to “gradually build up trusting relationships” with people who are sleeping rough. But St Mungo’s has admitted to the Guardian that it has cooperated with Home Office immigration, compliance and enforcement (Ice) teams when they go looking for rough sleepers who are in the UK illegally. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/05/st-mungos-homeless-charity-helped-target-rough-sleepers-to-deport

Forged Ids: Landlord Laws 'Fuelling Black Market'

Legislation aimed at preventing illegal immigrants from renting properties is fuelling a black market in forged IDs. Under Right to Rent rules landlords must check the immigration status of new tenants. But criminal gangs are helping undocumented immigrants flout the law by them selling fake documents. A Home Affairs spokesperson said landlords were not expected to be experts in spotting forged documents. However, David Smith of Anthony Gold Solicitors, who specialises in landlord and tenant law, said this lack of expertise was problematic. "They (landlords) do not have the knowledge or skills to do the job properly. I've never met a landlord who can tell a valid Liechtenstein passport from a forgery," he told the BBC. Read more on the BBC website.

Landlords Fined After Roll-Out Of New Right To Rent Checks

Dozens of landlords have been fined under a crackdown on illegal immigration. Financial penalties totalling £37,000 were handed out in the first eight months after the Right to Rent scheme was rolled out across England, figures obtained by the Press Association reveal. The fines were issued to 62 landlords between the start of February and end of September last year - a rate of around one every four days. Read more on the Belfast Telegraph.

Right To Rent Not Working

Right to rent checks are not working, with more and more landlords afraid to rent to those without British passports, according to a new report by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI). It shows that the Government’s crackdown on illegal immigrants is creating a climate of fear amongst landlords. The charity is calling on the government to abandon the scheme. JCWI’s research suggests that landlords who have no wish to discriminate are being forced to do so by the scheme – with people who have a full right to rent a home in the UK being disadvantaged, along with others who should be able to access housing. It claims the scheme creates ‘structural incentives’ for landlords to discriminate unlawfully against foreigners and ethnic minorities. Read more on the RLA website.

Maximum 5 Year Jail Sentence for Landlords Failing Immigration Checks

Since February all private landlords in England have had to carry out “right to rent” checks on tenants for all new tenancies. Landlords currently face a fine of up to £3000 if they are found to be letting property to people without the right to reside in England. But from 1st December a landlord would have committed a criminal offence where they know or have “reasonable cause to believe” that the property they are letting is occupied by someone who is disqualified due to their immigration status. It will also be an offence for agents who knew or “had reasonable cause to believe” that their landlord client was letting to a tenant who was disqualified due to their immigration status. Read more on the NLA website.

Responsible Landlords To Get Protection From Immigration Bill

Members of parliament have approved measures that will give greater protection to responsible landlords wanting to evict illegal immigrants. Changes to the Immigration Bill, proposed by the government and approved on 25th April, will provide protection for landlords who take reasonable steps in an appropriate time frame to terminate tenancies of tenants in the country illegally. Previously under the Bill, landlords would face immediate criminal sanctions upon discovery that they failed to ensure their tenants had the right to rent property before having the chance to evict them. Read more on 24dash.

Court Judgement Could Impact Right To Rent

A landmark court judgement may have a significant impact on the Government’s Right to Rent legislation. Airline Ryanair won a civil court case after appealing against fines imposed by the Home Office for carrying illegal immigrants into the UK. Significantly, the judge who found in favour of the airline said its staff could not be expected to spot cleverly forged passports that even trained immigration officers found hard to detect. The judge said the way the regime for airlines to check passports is operated by the Home Office “offends the basic concepts of justice and indeed rule of law.”  Whilst the ruling is not binding on other courts the RLA now believes it could impact on the Government’s ability to enforce its ‘Right to Rent’ policy. Read more on the RLA website.

Government Failing Landlords On Right To Rent

More than 90% of landlords have received no information from the Government on their new legal duty to check the immigration status of their tenants. This is despite a law coming into force demanding landlords undertake checks on their tenants to ensure they have the right to live in the country. According to a survey of over 1,500 landlords the lack of information from the Government is leading to confusion about how landlords are expected to carry out the checks. The survey found that that 72% of landlords do not understand their obligations under the policy, designed to make the country a more hostile environment for illegal immigrants. Read more on the Residential Landlords Association website.

“Limited Evidence” Proves Need To Think Again On Migrant Rental Checks

Government efforts to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to access rented housing have been left in tatters following the publication of a new report. With the Home Office confirming that the scheme will be rolled out across England from the 1st February next year, its own analysis of the pilot scheme has undermined the central purpose of the policy. The assessment notes that there is only “limited evidence” from the pilot scheme area “that illegal migrants’ access to the private rental sector…was being restricted.”The findings show also that of those landlords in the West Midlands who had carried out Right to Rent checks, the proportion that now always request photo identification of tenants has increased from fifty one per cent to eighty one per cent. Download a copy of the report from the Home Office website. 

Immigration Plans See Lawful Tenants Refused Housing

The warning comes on the day that new research indicates the difficulties caused by the Government’s ‘Right to Rent’ scheme, piloted in the West Midlands. Under the Government’s plans, private sector landlords are legally responsible for checking the immigration status of their tenants. Having been piloted, the Government announced last month that it would be expanded nationwide, with landlords facing up to five years in prison for failure to undertake the right checks. According to research published by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, landlords in the West Midlands are becoming increasingly cautious about renting property out to any tenant with identity documents which are not familiar, with many landlords unclear about the processes they are expected to follow. Read more on the RLA website.

Scheme Forcing Landlords to Check Tenants' Immigration Status 'Has Failed'

A scheme to fine landlords for renting homes to illegal immigrants has caught just seven people since it was launched in the Black Country. The government chose Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall, as well as neighbouring Birmingham, to pilot tougher rules on the right to rent, threatening them with £3,000 fines if they do not maintain strict checks. But since it was launched last December only seven people have been prosecuted and fined an average of £800 each. The Home Office said it was 'currently the subject of an evaluation which will be published in due course'. But a Freedom of Information Act request has revealed the current figures across the whole of the Black Country and Birmingham. Read more on the Express and Star website.

Rogue Landlords and Letting Agents to Get Stiffer Fines in Rental Market Shakeup

Rogue landlords and letting agents face higher fines, being potentially blacklisted from the property industry and being forced to repay rent taken since the start of a tenancy under proposals outlined by the government. One aspect of the plans – the eviction of immigrants living illegally in Britain – attracted the most headlines, but other proposals suggest that the government is considering a transformation of the private rental market. The CLG has said that the existing level of fines against rogue landlords are failing to have an impact and are just written off as a business expense.  Download the Consultation from the CLG website.

Right to Rent Immigration Checks: Agents Happy, Landlords Not

There has been a mixed reaction to the government’s announcement that agents and landlords face jail if they fail to conduct Right To Rent checks or fail to evict known illegal migrants from privately rented properties. The proposals have been broadly welcomed by the Association of Residential Letting Agents but have been criticised by the National Landlords’ Association. Meanwhile the Residential Landlords Association says there is already substantial confusion over the issue of checking documents of tenants to validate their status. Read more on the Letting Agent Today website.

Landlords 'Must Evict' Illegal Immigrants

Landlords in England will be expected to evict tenants who lose the right to live in the UK under new measures to clamp down on illegal immigration. They will be able to end tenancies, sometimes without a court order, when asylum requests fail, ministers say. Landlords will also be required to check a migrant's status in advance of agreeing a lease. Repeat offenders could face up to five years in prison. Under the proposals for landlords in England, the Home Office would issue a notice when an asylum application fails that confirms the tenant no longer has the right to rent property. Read more on the BBC website.

Right to Rent Immigration Checks ‘Unworkable’

Landlords and letting agents lack the necessary know-how and training to enforce right to rent immigration checks, a leading London property firm has warned, as it condemned proposed sanctions as ‘disproportionate’. Right to rent checks were introduced towards the end of the Coalition government, to help combat concerns landlords were harbouring illegal immigrants in their properties. Those who fail to verify the immigration status of their tenants face fines of up to £5,000. The scheme has been piloted in the Midlands, where it has led to additional fees for tenants according to the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. Read more on the buildingconstructiondesign website.

Cameron Told Not To Pass The Buck onto Landlords

The new Immigration Bill announced by the Prime Minister David Cameron has been given a cautious welcome by landlords but with a warning not to pass the buck on to them for illegal immigration. Cameron announced a number of proposals to be tabled in the prospective legislation. The details of the Bill, which will be a central part of the new Government programme to be announced in the Queen’s speech include:

·         New powers for councils to crack down on unscrupulous landlords

·         To allow landlords to evict illegal migrants more quickly

·         To roll out the Right to Rent scheme nationwide

·         To introduce a new mandatory licensing regime

·         Consulting on cancelling tenancies when visas expire

Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Government to Fast-Track Landlord Migrant Checks

The government is accelerating plans to force landlords to check their tenants are in the UK legally, David Cameron has announced.  In a speech, setting out a series of measures designed to crack down on illegal immigration, the prime minister said he would go further than a West Midlands pilot, which is currently testing proposals to make landlords check their tenants are not illegal migrants. Mr Cameron said he would expand the initiative nationwide, saying that the Liberal Democrats had previously limited the government to piloting the scheme. Read more on the Gov.Uk website.

Tough New Housing Rules to Control Immigration

New measures to ensure fair play in taxpayer-funded social housing and stop rogue landlords cashing in from renting homes to illegal migrants have been set out by the Prime Minister.  Ministers want to tackle the widespread perception that the way social housing is allocated is unfair and favours foreign migrants over local people and the armed forces.  Almost 1 in 10 of all new social housing tenancies across England are given to foreign nationals.

So new rules will ensure that councils give priority to local people when allocating their social housing. Ministers will introduce new statutory guidance for councils, requiring them to amend their allocation policies to ensure only those with a well-established local residency and local connections will go on the waiting lists and qualify for a taxpayer-funded social home.  Read more on the GovUK website.