What changes for Right to Rent on 1 October 2026

The Home Office published a new code of practice for the Right to Rent scheme on 30 June 2026. It is the seventh version, and it comes into force on 1 October 2026, replacing the version that has applied since 12 February 2024.

This page covers what actually changes, what does not, and the one thing worth doing before the date.

Right to Rent applies in England only. It has never been in force in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

What is not changing

Most of the scheme is untouched, and it is worth saying so plainly, because a new code of practice tends to get read as a rebuild.

The timing rules are the same. A check on someone with a time-limited right to rent still has to be made and recorded no earlier than 28 calendar days before the tenancy start date, weekends and bank holidays included. Someone with an unlimited right to rent can still be checked at any point before the agreement is entered into.

The penalties are the same. They run by breach type over a rolling three years: £5,000 for a first breach involving a lodger and £10,000 for a repeat, £10,000 for a first breach involving an occupier and £20,000 for a repeat.

The scope is the same. England, everyone aged 18 or over who will use the property as their only or main home, whether or not they are named on the agreement.

And your existing checks stand. More on that below, because it is the question people ask first.

What changes

The digital route is renamed and widened

Identity Service Provider becomes right to rent digital verification service provider, or RtR DVSP. The Data Use and Access Act 2025 is named as the legislative foundation for the change, and the term IDSP does not appear in the new code at all.

The rename matters less than the widening. Under the old code the digital route covered holders of valid British or Irish passports and Irish passport cards, and nothing else. Under the new one a DVSP can verify a British or Irish passport up to six months past its expiry date, and acceptable documents from List A and List B where those documents are supplied to the DVSP in a digital format by, or on behalf of, whoever issued them. Where an expired passport is relied on, the verification has to use passive authentication.

Using a digital provider stays optional, but using an unregistered one does not work

The code is explicit that it is not mandatory to use a DVSP. If you do use one, it is mandatory that the provider is on the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OFDIA) register and that their entry carries a note confirming they can provide right to rent checks.

Both parts, on the register and noted for right to rent. A provider can be on the register without the note.

Whichever route you take, you still have to satisfy yourself that the photograph and biographic details the provider returns are consistent with the person in front of you, and you remain liable for a civil penalty if there is no statutory excuse. The provider does the verification. The excuse is still yours to hold.

Face matching has to run through a registered provider

Where facial recognition technology is used in a right to rent check, it must be carried out through a RtR DVSP. That sentence appears in the manual document check section, the Home Office online check section and the DVSP section, so it binds all three routes rather than only the digital one.

The provider supplies a comparison verifying the image on the document against the person, and the landlord has to keep a copy of that comparison securely alongside a copy of the document. If the technology cannot verify the images, the occupier must be given a reasonable opportunity to verify their identity another way.

A manual check can take a digitally issued document

A manual document check may now use the authoritatively digitally issued version of a List A or List B document, where one exists. If you rely on one, you have to take reasonable steps to verify it was issued by, or on behalf of, the department or individual that issued it, and the code strongly encourages using a RtR DVSP for the identity check rather than doing it by eye.

The transition rule, and why nothing needs redoing

Two versions of the code can apply to a single case, and the new one splits the question in half.

A check is assessed against the code in force when the check was carried out. The civil penalty amount is determined by the code in force at the date of the breach.

So a check made properly in March 2026 is judged by the sixth code, not the seventh, even if it is examined in 2027. Checks carried out in the prescribed manner before 1 October will be considered against the version that was in force at the time. There is no requirement to go back over completed files.

The penalty amounts happen to be unchanged this time, so the split has no practical bite on 1 October. It will matter the next time a code moves the numbers.

Who holds the liability

Where a landlord appoints an agent to carry out the checks, liability for civil penalties transfers to the agent. It stops there. Liability cannot be transferred beyond the agent, which means an agent cannot pass it down to a referencing supplier or an identity provider.

The code advises putting a written agreement in place setting out whether the agent is responsible for the initial check, the follow up checks, or both. Worth doing before the date rather than after it.

Before 1 October

1. Check your provider. If someone else runs your ID checks, find their entry on the OFDIA register and confirm it carries a right to rent note. Ask them directly if you cannot find it. It is a fair question with a short answer.
2. Check your face matching. If any part of your process compares a face to a document photograph, that comparison has to come from a registered provider, whichever check route you are on.
3. Check your written agreements. Landlord and agent should both be clear which of them is responsible for the initial check and for follow ups.
4. Update your own documentation. Anything that names an IDSP, or that describes the digital route as British and Irish passports only, is out of date on 1 October.
5. Leave completed files alone. They are judged by the code that was in force when they were made.

The source

The code of practice is published in full on GOV.UK: Code of practice for landlords and their agents: the right to rent scheme, 1 October 2026.

This page summarises it. It is not legal advice, and where the two differ the code is what counts.