Alternatives to Paying a Letting Agent for Right to Rent Checks in England

If you are paying a letting agent partly or mainly to handle right to rent checks, you have four alternatives that range from free to under £40. A tenant-find service typically costs £300 to £1,000+ per placement, and a full-management agent takes 8% to 15% of monthly rent — but right to rent verification is one of the simpler compliance tasks a landlord can do independently. The check itself uses free government tools. What you are really paying the agent for is knowing which tool to use and keeping the records correctly.

Here are the alternatives, ranked by how much structure they give you.

Alternative 1: Free GOV.UK Guidance (£0)

The Home Office publishes everything you need to run a right to rent check legally. The Landlord's Guide to Right to Rent Checks explains the rules. The Code of Practice (in force from 1 October 2026) sets out the procedures. The online share code service at gov.uk/view-right-to-rent handles digital checks. The Landlord Checking Service accepts requests for applicants who cannot provide documents.

The upside: completely free and authoritative. These are the primary sources that every agent, association, and guide draws from.

The downside: the information is scattered across at least four separate publications. None provides a single workflow that takes you from "applicant arrives with documents" through to "records filed, follow-up scheduled, statutory excuse established." You have to assemble the process yourself, cross-referencing between the Landlord's Guide, the Code of Practice, the Document User Guide, and the checking portal. For a landlord who does this once or twice a year, that assembly takes time and introduces the risk of missing a step.

Best for: landlords who are comfortable reading statutory guidance and building their own checklists, or who have done enough checks to know the process from memory.

Alternative 2: Standalone Compliance Guide (Under £20)

A dedicated guide consolidates the government's scattered publications into a single operational workflow. The Right to Rent Checks in England guide, for example, maps the four verification routes (manual document check, share code, DVSP, Landlord Checking Service) into a decision tree based on what the applicant hands you. It includes fillable templates — a record coversheet, a follow-up tracker, an agent liability checklist — so the administrative process is mechanical rather than improvised.

The upside: one-off cost, full workflow coverage, no ongoing subscription. You own the PDF and can reuse it for every tenancy.

The downside: no live support. If you encounter an unusual scenario — an applicant with a pending judicial review, for instance — you would need to look up the specifics yourself or contact the Landlord Checking Service directly.

Best for: self-managing landlords with one to three properties who need a reliable process they can follow each time a new tenancy starts.

Alternative 3: Digital Verification Service Provider (£15–£40 per Check)

Under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 and the October 2026 Code of Practice, certified Right to Rent Digital Verification Service Providers can conduct digital identity checks for British and Irish citizens. Platforms like Goodlord and other registered DVSPs handle the identity matching digitally, producing a verification record you can store.

For non-British applicants with digital immigration status, you use the free GOV.UK share code portal — no DVSP needed.

The upside: the digital check is fast and produces a structured verification record. If you verify multiple applicants frequently, the per-check cost may be worthwhile.

The downside: DVSPs cover only one of the four verification routes (digital identity for British and Irish citizens). They do not handle share code checks, manual document inspections, or Landlord Checking Service requests. They do not manage follow-up scheduling for time-limited permission. And the per-check cost adds up — a joint tenancy with four adults means four separate checks.

Best for: landlords who verify British or Irish passport holders frequently and want the convenience of a digital process rather than a manual document inspection.

Alternative 4: NRLA Membership (£90–£100+ per Year)

The National Residential Landlords Association provides right to rent factsheets and articles as part of its annual membership. You also get a telephone helpline, a template library, accredited training, and tax guidance.

The upside: broad coverage across all landlord compliance topics, not just right to rent. The helpline gives you someone to call when you are unsure.

The downside: for a landlord with one property who needs right to rent compliance specifically, the membership is expensive relative to the task. The right to rent resources are summary articles, not step-by-step operational workflows with fillable tools. And the cost recurs every year whether you need support or not.

Best for: portfolio landlords who use the broader membership benefits (legal helpline, training, templates) and treat right to rent coverage as one benefit among many.

The Comparison at a Glance

The Agent Liability Question

Before dropping your agent, check one thing: does your current agreement specifically transfer statutory right to rent liability under Section 22 of the Immigration Act 2014? If it does, and the agent is competent, you have a genuine compliance shield. If it does not — and many tenant-find agreements do not — you are already carrying the liability yourself. The agent is running the check as a courtesy, not as a legal transfer of responsibility.

In that case, you are paying £300 to £1,000+ per placement for a check you could do yourself in 15 to 30 minutes using free government tools and a process guide. The agent adds value in tenant sourcing, viewing management, and reference coordination. The right to rent check itself is the easiest part of the package to take back in-house.

Who This Is For

• Landlords in England paying an agent primarily or partly for right to rent compliance
• Self-managing landlords considering hiring an agent and wondering whether the right to rent piece justifies the cost
• Landlords switching from full management to self-management who need to take over compliance tasks

Who This Is NOT For

• Landlords who value the full-service agent package (sourcing, viewings, referencing, maintenance coordination) and see right to rent as one small part of the whole
• Landlords with complex multi-property portfolios where agent management is operationally necessary
• Landlords in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland — right to rent applies only in England

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my agent still run the check if I do not pay for full management?

It depends on the service level. Some agents include right to rent checks in their tenant-find fee. Others charge it as an add-on at £30 to £75 per applicant. Ask specifically — and ask whether their service agreement transfers statutory liability to them. If it does not, the check is a convenience, not a legal shield.

Is it risky to do the check myself?

No more risky than any other administrative task — provided you follow the prescribed process. The check is a defined procedure: identify the correct route, verify documents in the applicant's presence, record the result with the date, and keep copies for the tenancy plus one year. A correctly conducted check establishes a statutory excuse that protects you from a civil penalty even if the tenant's right to rent is later found to be invalid.

What if I make a mistake?

The statutory excuse defence protects landlords who conducted the prescribed check, even if the check did not catch a fraudulent document. The defence does not require a perfect check — it requires a prescribed check. If you followed the correct route, verified the document in the person's presence, and kept dated records, you have the defence. If you skipped a step or did not keep records, you do not.

How much time does the check actually take?

For a straightforward case — British citizen with a valid passport, or a non-British tenant with a working share code — the check takes 10 to 15 minutes including copying and filing the record. The first time, budget 30 minutes to familiarise yourself with the process. After that it becomes routine, and you may wonder what you were paying the agent for.

See more England guides →