Agents are warned that new criminal offences are being created on December 1 – less than a month away – under the Immigration Act 2016.
The date was announced yesterday and will affect all agents making Right to Rent checks on behalf of landlords.
The Home Office said that the new criminal offences will be created to deal with rogue landlords and agents who knowingly, or with reasonable cause to believe, let to illegal migrants.
The Home Office also said that as from December 1, it will be easier to evict illegal migrant tenants.
Further information about both these provisions will be made available between now and next month, the Home Office said.
Fact sheets and further information are available on Gov.uk
Comments (6)
You can see why they are doing it, forcing the illegals out into the open. Currently they hide under the radar in rented properties. What concerns me is the industry is not geared up to recognise forged documents.
that would make sense, if they actually deported such persons….the legislation only requires us to evict when we become aware of such a situation…if they really wanted to remove them from the country, it should really be :
(a) as soon as you are aware of an illegal person either at application stage or during the tenancy, you MUST phone the home office immediately and give a full description of person, along with copying any documentation provided.
(b) on receipt of such information, the Home Office will send a team within one hour to remove such persons either from your office or the property, and deport them within 14 days
So providing someone with a home is now potentially a criminal offence. To be be seen to be discriminating someone is also a criminal offence. These are just two of the ways our heavy handed government seem to want to criminalise the whole profession with legislation so badly drafted even trained solicitors don’t real understand it fully. Why don’t they just save some some time and throw us all in the slammer and throw away the key.
It sounds like taking up shoplifting will prove to be both more profitable and less likely to get you a criminal record!
When this was being debated I was informed by James Brokenshire this would not be a criminal offense. Just goes to show you can’t believe any politician! Whilst committing fraud is a criminal action yet so many MP’s were caught fiddling their expenses so I suppose if we do get it wrong we will be in the same league as many MP’s
We seem to be in an awful hurry to make everything a criminal offence.
By far the worst offender of course in letting in illegal migrants, is the Government themselves.