Right to Rent Acceptable Documents: List A and List B Explained

A tenant arrives at the viewing with a stack of papers — driving licence, utility bill, a photocopy of something official-looking. You need to know whether any of it actually counts for a Right to Rent check. The answer depends entirely on which statutory list the documents fall under, and getting it wrong leaves you without the statutory excuse that shields you from a £10,000 civil penalty.

The Two-List Framework

The Home Office divides acceptable documents into List A (continuous right to rent) and List B (time-limited right to rent). The list determines how long your statutory excuse lasts and whether you'll need to conduct follow-up checks.

List A creates a continuous statutory excuse for the entire duration of the tenancy. Once you've checked and recorded a List A document, you don't need to re-check that tenant — their right to rent has no expiry date attached to it.

List B creates a time-limited statutory excuse. You'll need to schedule a follow-up check before the excuse expires, calculated as the latest of the immigration permission expiry date, the validity expiry of the document evidencing it, or 12 months from the check date.

List A, Group 1: Single Documents

Group 1 documents are standalone — any one of these on its own proves an unlimited right to rent:

• Current or expired British passport showing the holder is a British citizen or a citizen of the UK and Colonies with right of abode (an expired passport must pass passive authentication; a clipped or cancelled passport is not acceptable)
• Current or expired Irish passport or Irish passport card (same principle — Irish citizens have an automatic right to rent in England)
• Certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen
• Current or expired Immigration Status Document with an endorsement showing indefinite leave to remain, if it includes a photograph

Expired documents relied on for a manual check must be verified through passive authentication.

The most common scenario here: a British tenant shows their passport (even if it expired five years ago), you verify any expired passport through passive authentication, check it matches the person in front of you, copy the biographical page, date-stamp the copy, and you're done permanently.

List A, Group 2: Two-Document Combinations

When a tenant can't produce a Group 1 document — no passport, no certificate of naturalisation — they can establish their right to rent with any two documents from List A Group 2.

Examples from Group 2 include:

• A UK birth or adoption certificate
• A current UK photocard driving licence (full or provisional)
• An employer letter issued within the last 3 months confirming the holder's employee status and reference or National Insurance number, and giving the employer's name and business address
• A benefit document issued within the last 3 months by HMRC, DWP, the Northern Ireland Department for Social Development, or a local authority, confirming receipt of a qualifying benefit
• A letter from a UK further or higher education institution confirming acceptance on a current course and giving the institution and course details

This is where the most common mistake happens: a driving licence alone is not enough. Landlords routinely assume a UK photocard driving licence proves right to rent. It doesn't. It must be paired with another document from List A Group 2. If a British-born tenant has lost their passport and shows only their driving licence, they need to also produce a birth certificate or another Group 2 document to complete the check.

List B: Time-Limited Documents

List B covers tenants with temporary immigration permission — student visas, work visas, and similar time-limited statuses. These documents establish a right to rent, but only for as long as the immigration permission lasts.

Physical List B documents include:

• A current passport endorsed with a UK visa showing a time-limited right to enter or remain
• A current Immigration Status Document with a photograph and time-limited endorsement
• A travel document showing a time-limited right to enter or remain

However, most List B tenants will now verify their status digitally through a GOV.UK share code rather than presenting physical documents. Physical Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) and Biometric Residence Cards (BRCs) have been phased out as valid proof for manual checks. Tenants holding these must verify through the online share code service instead — the printed expiry date on a legacy BRP card cannot be relied on.

The Manual Check Process

For any manual document check (List A or List B), you must follow three steps. Acceptable evidence may be physical or an authoritative digital version.

Obtain the original documents. This may include an authoritatively digitally issued version of an acceptable document. A photocopy, scan, or phone photo of a physical document does not count.

Check the documents in the tenant's presence. For physical documents, look at the photograph and confirm it matches the person. For digitally issued documents, verify their source and validity. Check dates of birth are consistent across documents and that time-limited permission has not expired. Look for obvious signs of tampering. You're expected to apply the standard of a reasonable person — not a forensic expert, but not wilfully blind either. In-person and live video calls are both acceptable; for a physical document checked by video, hold the original during the call.

Copy and retain clear copies of the relevant pages. For passports: the biographical page with photo, and any pages showing visa endorsements. For all other documents: both sides of cards, or the full face of letters. Keep a secure record of the check date with the evidence; you may write "Date of check: [DD/MM/YYYY]" on the copy. Store securely for the duration of the tenancy plus one year.

When Physical Documents Aren't the Right Route

Not every tenant should be checked with physical documents. Non-British and non-Irish tenants with digital immigration status (eVisa holders, EU Settlement Scheme participants) verify through the GOV.UK online share code service. British and Irish citizens with valid passports can also be checked through certified Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT) providers registered with OfDIA.

The key rule: let the tenant choose their verification route from the options available to their status. Insisting that a non-British tenant provide physical documents when they'd prefer to use a share code — or demanding a share code from someone who wants to show their passport — risks a discrimination complaint under the Equality Act 2010.

For step-by-step decision maps that match every tenant scenario to the correct verification route, with printable audit coversheets for your records, see the Right to Rent Checks guide.

See more England guides →