Right to Rent: what renters in England need to know

Who needs a Right to Rent check?

Every adult who will live there

Anyone aged 18 or over who will use the property as their only or main home. Children under 18 are not checked.

Even if they are not on the agreement

A partner or adult child who is moving in is checked too. What matters is who will actually live there, not whose name is on the paperwork.

Even if nothing is in writing

A verbal tenancy, or one with no formal agreement at all, is still covered.

Whatever your nationality

British citizens are checked in the same way as everyone else. A landlord must not decide who to check from a name, an accent or how someone looks.

Unlimited or time-limited

Some people have an unlimited Right to Rent — British and Irish citizens, and people with settled status or indefinite leave, for example. Someone with valid permission to be in the UK for a set period has a time-limited Right to Rent.

A time-limited Right to Rent doesn’t stop you renting normally. It means the landlord will need to check again later.

How do you prove your Right to Rent?

There are four approved ways, and which one applies depends on your status and the evidence you have.

A Home Office online check, with a share code

If your status is held digitally — an eVisa, or settled or pre-settled status — you give the landlord a share code and they check it online. If you have an eVisa, this is the only way you can prove your Right to Rent.

A manual document check

The landlord sees your original documents from the Home Office’s lists, checks them with you present, keeps a copy and records the date. British and Irish citizens most often prove it this way.

A digital identity check

A British or Irish citizen with a valid passport can have it checked by a digital verification provider instead. From 1 October 2026 the provider must be registered with the government.

The Home Office Landlord Checking Service

For people who can’t prove their status any other way — for example with an application or appeal still waiting for a decision. The landlord asks the Home Office, which answers within two working days.

What is a Right to Rent share code?

If your status is held digitally, you generate a share code on GOV.UK’s Prove your right to rent service and give it to the landlord or agent with your date of birth. They use it to view your status on the Home Office service, and must check that the photo it shows is you.

A share code lasts 90 days and can be used as many times as you need in that period, so there’s no harm in generating one shortly before viewings. It isn’t a reference number for the landlord to note down — it is what lets them carry out the official check.

British and Irish citizens don’t use share codes. And if you have an eligible immigration document, a landlord can’t reject your application because you gave them that instead of a share code.

Do British citizens need a Right to Rent check?

Yes. British citizens have the Right to Rent, but the landlord still has to check it. The rules are designed so that everyone is checked consistently, rather than only people a landlord guesses might be subject to immigration control.

A British passport, current or expired, is enough on its own for a manual check. Without one, you can use a combination of other documents from the Home Office list, such as a UK birth certificate alongside another official document. With a valid passport, the landlord can use a digital identity check instead.

What documents can prove Right to Rent?

The Home Office publishes lists of acceptable documents for manual checks in its code of practice for landlords. The list matters: a landlord only gets legal protection — a “statutory excuse” — against a penalty by following the prescribed process with those documents, so an ID that isn’t on the list won’t do, however official it looks.

For a manual check, the landlord must see the originals, check them with you present, keep a copy and record the date of the check.

When does the check happen?

Before you move in. If your Right to Rent is unlimited, the check can be done at any time before the tenancy agreement is made. If it is time-limited, it must be done in the 28 days before the tenancy starts — one reason agents often ask for Right to Rent details shortly before the move.

It is part of the pre-tenancy process, but it must be applied fairly. A landlord shouldn’t single someone out for extra checks because they appear to be from another country.

If your Right to Rent is time-limited

The landlord must carry out a follow-up check to confirm you can still rent. It is due at whichever is latest: 12 months after the last check, the date your permission to be in the UK expires, or the date your document expires. If a follow-up check shows you no longer have the Right to Rent, the landlord must report it to the Home Office.

The Home Office’s updated code on avoiding discrimination, in force from 1 October 2026, says renters must not be treated less favourably because their Right to Rent is time-limited.

If you can’t prove it straight away

Not having the usual documents doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have the Right to Rent. If you have an application or appeal waiting for a Home Office decision, or your status can’t be shown through the usual routes, the landlord can ask the Home Office Landlord Checking Service. It replies within two working days, and a positive answer lasts 12 months.

Commonwealth citizens who have lived in the UK for a long time but don’t have documents may be able to get them through the Windrush Scheme.

Explain your circumstances to the landlord or agent rather than assuming the tenancy can’t go ahead. They can’t insist on digital evidence and refuse a manual check if you can’t use the online service.

Can a landlord refuse you because you are not British?

Right to Rent doesn’t give landlords permission to discriminate. They must check every prospective adult occupier in the same way, including people they assume are British, and must not treat you less favourably because of how you prove your Right to Rent.

If you believe a landlord has discriminated against you because of a protected characteristic, such as race or nationality, you can bring a claim in the county court.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Right to Rent scheme doesn’t apply there. If you are renting in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, different rules apply, and there is no Right to Rent check to pass.

Homes that don’t need a check

Some kinds of accommodation are outside the scheme, including:

• Social housing, and accommodation provided by a local authority
• Care homes, hospices and hospitals
• Hostels and refuges
• Mobile homes
• Halls of residence and some student accommodation arranged by a university or college — not an ordinary house let to students
• Accommodation that comes with a job
• Leases of seven years or more

Each has detailed conditions. An ordinary private let — a flat, a house or a room in a shared house — is covered.

If a landlord doesn’t check

Right to Rent is the landlord’s responsibility. A landlord who lets to someone without the Right to Rent, and didn’t carry out the prescribed checks, can be fined per adult occupier:

First breach, for a lodger

Up to £5,000

First breach, for any other occupier

Up to £10,000

Repeat breach, for a lodger

Up to £10,000

Repeat breach, for any other occupier

Up to £20,000

That’s why letting agents can seem strict about completing the check before you get the keys.

Right to Rent is not tenant referencing

A Right to Rent check establishes whether you are legally allowed to rent. Referencing is the agent’s separate judgement of whether to let to you, and can look at:

• Your identity
• Income and whether the rent is affordable
• Your employer
• Previous landlords
• Sometimes a credit check

Passing one doesn’t mean you’ve passed the other.

Right to Rent is not Right to Work

A Right to Work check is about whether you can work in the UK. A Right to Rent check is about whether you can rent a home in England. Both can use Home Office share codes, but they are separate checks and a code for one won’t do for the other.

What changes on 1 October 2026

Updated Home Office codes of practice apply to tenancies starting on or after 1 October 2026. They reflect how checks are now done digitally — eVisas, the online service and digital verification providers — and require landlords who use a provider to use a registered one.

The updated discrimination code says renters must be treated the same whichever way they prove their Right to Rent, that a time-limited right is no reason to treat someone less favourably, and that nobody should be shut out because they can’t use digital services.

A checklist before you rent

1. 1. Expect a check. It is a normal part of renting privately in England, and it happens to everyone.
2. 2. Work out how you’ll prove it. A share code if your status is digital, or original documents or a passport check if you’re British or Irish.
3. 3. Get a share code if you need one. Generate it on GOV.UK shortly before the check — it lasts 90 days.
4. 4. Don’t assume missing documents mean you can’t rent. The landlord can ask the Home Office to confirm your position through the Landlord Checking Service.
5. 5. Tell the agent about every adult moving in. Anyone who will live there needs checking, named on the agreement or not.
6. 6. Keep it separate from referencing. Passing the Right to Rent check doesn’t mean you’ve passed the agent’s affordability checks, or the other way round.