The ‘Right to Rent’ checks are set to be rolled out nationally despite the government withholding its evaluation of the ‘pilot’ that has been running in the West Midlands. They have now announced that they want to create a criminal sanction for landlords who fail to comply with the checks. Currently there is a civil penalty. It has also been announced that under new legislation tenants without status can be evicted far more easily.

We have been independently evaluating the scheme and our report will be published on 3rd September – if you are a landlord or tenant and have been affected by the checks, or have concerns about them, we need to hear from you urgently.

Please complete our short (5 minutes) questionnaires below:

If you are a tenant or lodger or both go to this survey

If you are a landlord or agent or both go to this survey

We have also created a dedicated email address for people to write in with their experiences and concerns of the scheme. Write to us at MAX@jcwi.org.uk subject line ‘Pilot’.

Other actions:

We would appreciate if you could please circulate this email to your networks and if you could please re-tweet our ‘Last Call for Evidence’

Background:

JCWI and the Movement Against Xenophobia (MAX) are working with Shelter, the NUS, the Chartered Institute of Housing, Generation Rent, Coventry Law Centre (Birmingham branch), MRN and other partners throughout the West Midlands to evaluate the scheme independently.

Our aims are as follows:

• To monitor the pilot scheme for discrimination and human rights implications for immigrants, black and ethnic minorities and indigenous people as a result of the scheme.
• To assess the impact on those who become destitute or are subject to exploitation by their landlords.
• To evaluate the efficacy of the scheme and the impact it has on landlords and tenants.
• For more information go to the  Right To Rent Checks page.