Paul762

I am not sure if I have messed up or not. At the beginning of the year my wife and I decided to start selling things to enable us to move back. Obviously this was before the corona virus.
We have lived here in America for 10 years and it will be 4 months when we planned to leave next month, my wife has dual nationality and I am on a green card. We have returned for at least 2 weeks to the UK every other or biyearly since we have been here.
Everything has been going great, flights sorted, shipping of boxes, transferring funds.
Just sorting out a 6 month rental, everything great, but now the letting agent is asking for a copy of our BRP visas which is something I have never heard of till now.
I was wondering if anybody has gone through this or any advice.
Thanks in advance Paul

spouse of scouse

If both you and your wife are UK citizens then there's no problem. There is a law that requires letting agents to establish that the people named on the lease are permitted to live in the UK. He/she obviously thinks that either you or your wife are a foreign national, hence asking for a copy of your biometric residence permit. Just provide a copy of the bio page of your UK passports, that's all that's needed

Paul762

Thank you so much for your quick reply, the letting agent hasn't replied and I hope you are right, it was just something I wasn't expecting. Thanks again

spouse of scouse

Honestly, you don't have anything to worry about. Even if one of you were a foreign national, all the agent would have to do is just put the one who is a UK citizen's name on the lease, and provide you a brief letter stating that he/she has no objection to the other one living in the property once they can provide a copy of their biometric residence permit.

The agent's just got it wrong, your UK passports are sufficient to establish that meet the 'Right to Rent' legislation. I'm a UK landlord myself and have had to establish this for new tenants several times myself.

Paul762

That's great thank you again, gees I have had quite a few things to organize and thought I was there until I heard from the landlord today and then I thought I don't have time now to do this

spouse of scouse

You're very welcome Paul. Getting everything planned, organised and done is a huge task, have done it myself and it nearly killed me

SanDiegogirl

You both have British passports. right?

Paul762

Yes we do both have British passports, my wife does have dual US/UK passports
I am not sure if its to do with timing but it has been more of hurdle going home than when we moved out here.

SanDiegogirl

The virus has certainly made travelling, and obtaining most services very difficult, but the fact you are both UK citizens removes the obstacle of immigration requirements.

Paul762

• Thank you, just hope the guy who was asking for them realizes and gets back to me tomorrow.
• Have a great rest of the day 😃

spouse of scouse

Send him/her this link, it demonstrates that a UK passport is a class A document and is all that is needed. The agent can't refuse to rent the property to you on the mistaken belief that you, both of you need a BRP, that would be unlawful.
https://www.gov.uk/check-tenant-right-to-rent-documents
and a link within this document
https://assets.publishing.service.go...t-Guidance.pdf

Paul762

Thanks again
i hope I get up tomorrow and he realizes
i think because he only saw my Idaho driving license he thinks we are Americans.
isent him copies of our UK passports
i will let you know if I hear from him, hopefully he works Saturdays
have a good one

Helen1964

Just out of curiosity - was it easy to organise a rental without viewing the property in person? Do you have friends or family in the area who were able to pop round and check it out?
I’m just asking because when we finally sell up in France we’ll be looking to rent something in the south west of England and won’t have much time in which to organise it. I’d sort of assumed we’d have to ask the removal company to keep our furniture in storage while we stayed in air bnb-type accommodation and hunted for a 6-month or longer rental.

Good luck with everything!

durham_lad

We organized a rental remotely when we moved back in 2016 by viewing properties mostly on Rightmove then having friends view prospective places for us. We used email to send the agent scanned images of documents such as passports and pension statemenus.

Breefinns

Waheyyy, Idaho! That's my home state. Whereabout have you been living there? Hope everything has panned out with the letting agent by now.