Private landlords and illegal immigrants

I used to be responsible for recruitement and didn't find it very hard to do all the checks. A very small booklet would suffice for landlords. If someone had very good forged documents I am sure the authorities would not find the landlord guilty if he/she could prove they had done all they could to check.

I don't think it would be necessary to have some huge campaign to check them out, just one or two cases brought to court and that would be enough of a warning to dodgy landlords.

This seems to me to be made out to be a much bigger issue than it actually is.

Aka do you honestly believe that getting landlords to check
immigration status (even if that were possible) would flush out illegal immigrants - the clue is in the word illegal - outside the law- they are not renting through normal, legitimate channels but being horribly exploited. As well as this policy being a knee- jerk reaction to UKIP, it is also cynically and deliberately and wickedly feeding into the whole anti- immigration-cum-racist discourse that is so beloved of much of the tabloid press and the right. There is a serious debate to be had about immigration but suggesting that landlords checking immigration status is the way to go is sheer and cynical opportunism. We've had employers doing checks for a long time now and whilst responsible employers do it properly, it has not stopped the employment of illegal immigrants because that operates under the radar. What landlord checks might do, as others on this thread have suggested, is to increase the difficulty that people here legitimately would have in finding accommodation as some landlords would be worried about falling foul of the law.

A good, sensible post Movedalot, i agree with you, especially with your last sentence.

Exactly, moved!

Right on AKA & MOVE.

Surely movealot if you have a bunch or landlords or landlord/employers who are breaking the law, they would not be concerned about breaking the law a little bit more and therefore a few court cases would not deter them?
How many prosecutions do you hear about in your area for operating HMOs illegally? The only one I recall in this area surfaced when a woman and child died in a fire in an unregistered HMO. The LA is really tight on approving applications - but you have to get change of use planning permission and then pay about £800 just to apply to be an HMO, plus install fire alarms etc. Upshot is that we still have lots of illegal HMOs.
I'd be really interested in suggestions about how this will actually work in practice? It is all easy to say "that sounds like a good idea" and to dismiss any comments that it might be impractical. But how then, is it a practical, workable idea?

Jess- brick wall

it won't work in practice,,,,its just the same old' lets say something that sounds good to appease the chattering classes'

If we had decent ID cards problem would be solved