Identity verification for tenant checks in lettings

What lettings businesses ask of identity checks

A letting looks simple from the outside. Somebody finds a flat, somebody agrees terms, somebody signs. Underneath, the person who signs is often not the only person who will live there, and the person who writes to the agent may not be in the same city as the property. In England the rules for private landlords ask for a check of the right to rent before a new tenancy starts, and they ask for it for every adult who will use the home as a main home, whether or not that adult is named on the agreement.

Two things follow for the people who run the process. The first is reach: the agent has to collect evidence from several people, some of them abroad, some of them unwilling to install anything. The second is evenness: the guidance is explicit that checking only the people thought not to be British citizens is against the law, so every adult is checked and one consistent process is applied to everyone. Consistent treatment does not mean identical evidence. A British or Irish citizen shows an original document, a person with a biometric residence card or permit gives a share code instead, and some people need a check with the Home Office. A document, selfie and liveness session serves some of these routes and none of the others, and it is an optional identity check beside the statutory one, not a replacement for it.

• Send the same link to every adult who will live in the property, one session each, as an optional identity check beside the statutory check.
• Read a passport or national ID card for that optional check.
• Compare the face on the document with a live face, so that the photograph is checked against a person.
• Keep the session log for the agent to show later.
• Let a staff member decide a case that the check does not settle.

The flow

1. Offer. The tenant's offer is accepted in the agent's or landlord's own system, which lists every adult who will use the home as a main home. This rule is yours.
2. Links. Your backend creates a session for each adult and sends each a one-time link, or the person scans a QR code to move from a desktop to a phone.
3. Questionnaire. Each adult enters name, birth date, contacts and the custom fields you need, such as the address of the property, before the KYC starts.
4. Document. Each adult photographs a passport or national ID card. The document is read and checked for fraud. A tenant whose only document is a biometric residence card or permit does not use this step as evidence of the right to rent, because the guidance does not accept those cards and asks for a share code instead.
5. Selfie and liveness. The selfie is matched to the document portrait and active liveness confirms a live person.
6. Decision. Your system reads the session status or receives a webhook. A case that needs a person is decided manually in the dashboard.
7. The statutory check. For each adult the landlord follows one of the routes in the guidance: original documents checked with the tenant present, a registered Digital Verification Service, or a share code. When a tenant has no accepted document and no valid share code, the landlord uses the Home Office checking service, and a tenant who may stay for a limited time is checked in the 28 days before the tenancy starts. The platform does not view share codes and does not replace these routes. Tenancies that the guidance exempts, such as social housing, student accommodation or a hostel, need no check.
8. Record. The session log and export stay in the dashboard, and retention is a setting you choose per scenario.

Where this differs from the real estate page

The real estate page is about the people on either side of a property deal and the anti-money-laundering duties of the agent who brokers it. This page is about a tenancy in England and a different kind of duty: a landlord's duty to check who may rent a home. The questions are different. There the agent asks whether the parties are who they claim and whether the funds are clean. Here the landlord asks whether each adult may lawfully rent the property, and in what way the evidence is to be kept.

Modules used

• Document verification, face verification and liveness.
• Questionnaire and QR hand-off with one-time links.
• Dashboard for the session log, export and manual decisions.
• REST API and webhooks.
• Data controls for retention and erasure.

Regulatory frame

One official text, in two pages of guidance: the GOV.UK guide to checking a tenant's right to rent, the pages on who to check and how to do a check, as fetched on 27 October 2026. It covers England only, and it is guidance, not the Act.

• The guide says a landlord must check that a tenant or lodger can legally rent a residential property in England, and that before a new tenancy starts all tenants aged 18 and over are to be checked, even if they are not named on the tenancy agreement, there is no agreement or the agreement is not in writing.
• It says to check all new tenants, that it is against the law to check only people thought not to be British citizens, and that a landlord must not discriminate against anyone because of where they are from.
• It gives three ways to check: checking the tenant's original documents, using a registered Digital Verification Service, or viewing the tenant's right to rent online with a share code.
• It says that a landlord cannot accept biometric residence cards or permits and should ask for a share code instead, that if the tenant has neither an accepted document nor a valid share code the landlord must use the landlord's checking service to request a Home Office check, and that a tenant allowed to stay for a limited time is checked in the 28 days before the tenancy starts.
• It says that no check is needed for tenants in social housing, a care home, hospice or hospital, a hostel or refuge, a mobile home or student accommodation, or in accommodation provided by a local authority, provided as part of a job or let on a lease of 7 years or longer.
• For original documents, it asks the landlord to check that the documents are genuine and belong to the tenant, with the tenant present, to check that the photographs are of the tenant and that the dates of birth are the same across the documents, and to make and keep copies and record the date of the check.
• For an online check with a share code, it asks the landlord to save a record of the profile page, record the date, and keep the record for the time the tenants rent and for one year after.
• It says that a landlord who rents to someone without the right to rent in England can get a fine of up to £20,000 for each tenant or be sent to prison.

This block describes the text, not our service. For information; not legal advice.

Sources

• GOV.UK, Checking your tenant's right to rent, Who you have to check, fetched 27 October 2026.
• GOV.UK, Checking your tenant's right to rent, How to do a check, fetched 27 October 2026.

Next

Try the interactive tour, read about document verification or compare with the real estate flow.