The Letting Agent's Guide to Right to Rent Checks and Record-Keeping

Right to rent checks—verifying that a prospective tenant has the legal right to rent residential property in the UK—are a mandatory part of the letting process. They're not optional. They're not a "best practice." They're the law. And agents who fail to conduct them, or who fail to keep proper records of conducting them, face penalties that can run into thousands per breach, per tenant.

The checks themselves take minutes. See the original documents, verify they're genuine, check they match the person presenting them, keep a copy. Done.

The record-keeping is where most agencies slip. Not because they don't care—they do—but because the system isn't there. You're processing ten tenancies a month. Each needs documents scanned, outcomes recorded, follow-up dates flagged. Some tenants have time-limited permission that expires in eighteen months. The expiry date is easy to forget when it's buried in an email or a note on the file.

A CRM built for letting agents changes this. Right to rent verification becomes an integrated step in your tenancy setup, not a separate process you hope nobody skips.

What the checks involve

According to the Home Office right to rent guidance, there are three things you must do:

1. Obtain the tenant's original documents (not scans, not photos—the physical original, or an approved online identity check).
2. Verify the documents are genuine and match the person presenting them.
3. Make copies and keep them.

Acceptable documents include passports, national identity cards, residence permits, travel documents with appropriate visas, and other immigration documents specified in the landlord's guide to right to rent checks. The list is set by the Home Office and changes occasionally, so it's worth checking the guidance annually.

The tricky part for most agencies is what comes next: tenants with time-limited permission. Their visa expires. Their right to rent expires with it. Before that date, you must conduct a follow-up check. Miss that date, and you're in breach.

This is the mistake that costs most agencies. The initial check happens during tenancy setup—it's in the workflow, hard to skip. But a follow-up due eighteen months later? That's a different story. Without a systematic reminder, it vanishes.

Recording checks in your CRM

Every right to rent check needs a home—preferably in your CRM, linked to the tenant record. Here's what you should record:

• Date of check: When you conducted it.
• Documents presented: Which documents did the tenant show you? Passport? Residence card? Visa in a travel document?
• Copies: Scans or photos of those documents, stored digitally and linked to the tenant record. (This is where document management systems pay for themselves—one place to find everything, searchable, backed up, compliant.)
• Who checked: Which team member conducted the verification.
• Outcome: Unrestricted right to rent, time-limited right, or no right.
• Expiry date (if time-limited): When the permission expires.

A good CRM for letting agents makes this field structure mandatory—you can't mark a tenancy as "ready" until every field is filled in. This prevents half-done records and ensures nothing gets missed in the rush.

Integrating checks into your workflow

Right to rent verification shouldn't live as a separate task buried in a to-do list. It should be a gate in your tenancy setup workflow—like collecting a deposit or getting a signed agreement.

When a new tenancy is created in your CRM, a task for right to rent verification should be triggered automatically. The task should have a deadline (typically the tenancy start date, or a few days before). The tenancy record shouldn't move to "active" status until the check is complete and the documents are uploaded.

This integration does two things:

1. It ensures nothing slips. A tenancy can't be set up without the check—no exceptions, no "I'll do it later."
2. It makes the process visible. A dashboard showing how many tenancies are pending verification keeps the team accountable and helps you spot bottlenecks.

Automating routine admin tasks like this—turning a policy into a workflow step—is where a lot of agencies find unexpected time savings. If someone's spending three hours a week chasing down forgotten checks, that time disappears when the check is mandatory from the start.

Follow-up checks: The high-risk area

If a tenant has time-limited permission, you must conduct a follow-up check before it expires. This is non-negotiable. And this is also the area where most agencies fail.

Here's the pattern: the initial check is integrated into the tenancy setup process. It rarely gets missed. A follow-up check due a year or eighteen months down the line, when the tenant has long since moved in and nobody thinks about the original paperwork? That's easy to miss—unless you have a system.

The CRM should calculate the follow-up date (based on the tenant's permission expiry) and set an automated follow-up reminder well in advance—typically 28 days before the check is due. Set it and forget it. The reminder arrives when the team needs it, not when someone happens to remember.

If the follow-up reveals that the tenant's permission has expired and hasn't been renewed, the tenant no longer has a right to rent. You must take appropriate action—which typically means ending the tenancy. A good CRM should link to the relevant procedures and document what you've done, so there's a clear audit trail if you're ever questioned.

Common mistakes

Accepting photocopies

The original document must be presented in person. A photocopy, a scan, an email attachment with a photo of the passport—none of these count. You must see the physical document or conduct an approved online identity check. If someone says "I'll send you a scan," the answer is no.

Incomplete records

Recording that a check was done but not recording which documents were presented, or not keeping copies—that's legally insufficient. The whole point of the record is to prove that the check happened and what it involved. A note saying "RTR check done" proves nothing. A record saying "Checked UK passport (number 12345ABC), entry stamp shows permission until 15 March 2027" proves everything.

Conducting checks after the tenancy starts

The check must happen before the tenant moves in. A check conducted after the tenancy has started doesn't satisfy the legal requirement and doesn't protect you from penalties. This is a hard line, not a gray area.

Missing follow-up checks

As above: the single largest compliance gap at most agencies. Automated reminders eliminate this risk entirely.

Discriminatory practice

Right to rent checks must be conducted for every applicant, equally, regardless of their appearance, name, accent, or perceived nationality. According to the Equality Act 2010 guidance, conducting checks only for applicants who "look foreign" or who have non-local names is discriminatory and illegal.

A CRM that makes the check a mandatory step in every tenancy workflow—with no option to skip it—ensures you're treating all applicants equally and protecting yourself from unintended discrimination.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I ask a tenant to bring their original documents to our office, or do I need to visit them?

A: Either works. You need to see the original document in person (or conduct an approved online identity check). You can ask the tenant to bring it to your office, visit them, or meet somewhere else—as long as you verify the original.

Q: What if a tenant refuses to provide documents or show them to me?

A: You cannot set up the tenancy. No check, no verification, no tenancy. This is absolute. If a tenant refuses, the tenancy doesn't happen.

Q: How long do I need to keep copies of the documents?

A: You must keep them for the duration of the tenancy, plus a reasonable period after (check the Home Office guidance for the current retention period). A CRM with document storage and automated retention policies takes the guesswork out of this.

Q: What's an "approved online identity check"?

A: The Home Office publishes a list of approved digital identity services that can conduct checks online. These typically use facial recognition or other digital verification methods. If you're using one, you still need to record which service was used and when the check was completed.

Q: If a tenant's permission expires while they're in the tenancy, what do I do?

A: You must serve notice to end the tenancy. You cannot continue to let the property to someone without a right to rent. (An automated reminder ensures you catch the expiry date before it passes.)

Q: Can I conduct right to rent checks for multiple tenants in a flat-share, or do I need to check each person individually?

A: Each person living in the property needs their own check. If three people are sharing a flat, you conduct three separate checks—one for each occupant.

Q: What penalty will I face if I don't conduct a check?

A: Civil penalties start at thousands per tenant per offense. Repeat offenses are higher. Criminal prosecution is possible in serious cases. Beyond financial penalties, a breach damages your reputation with landlords—if the landlord faces a penalty because your agency failed to check, they won't blame the regulation, they'll blame you.

Building a culture of compliance

Right to rent compliance isn't a one-off task—it's an ongoing obligation that applies to every new tenancy and every follow-up check for the duration of every time-limited tenancy. Building a culture where these checks are taken seriously, and where the records prove it, is essential.

Start with training. Every team member involved in lettings should understand the requirements, the acceptable documents, the consequences of failure. Refresher training annually. Updates whenever the rules change.

Then, reinforce compliance with systems. A CRM like Relentify makes compliance visible: dashboard indicators showing which checks are complete, which are pending, which are overdue. The team stays focused. The landlords stay protected. You stay compliant.

A CRM also helps with GDPR compliance around the documents you're storing—especially important when you're keeping copies of passports and other sensitive identity documents. Your tenant data is protected. Your systems are auditable. Your records hold up.

Right to rent checks take minutes. The record-keeping is straightforward when it's systematised. The penalties for failure are severe. There's no good reason to get this wrong—and with a proper system in place, no agency should.

Try Relentify free for 14 days. See how a CRM built for letting agents puts right to rent verification, document storage, and automated follow-ups in one place.