Right to Rent Share Code: How Landlords Use the GOV.UK Online Check

Your tenant says they've generated a share code. You paste it into the GOV.UK portal, hit submit — and nothing comes back. Meanwhile the tenancy starts next week and you're wondering whether you're about to eat a £10,000 civil penalty for letting someone move in without a valid check.

Share codes are the standard verification route for non-British and non-Irish tenants with digital immigration status. Getting the process right is straightforward once you know the mechanics, but a handful of common mistakes trip landlords up repeatedly.

What a Right to Rent Share Code Actually Is

A share code is a 9-character alphanumeric string that your tenant generates through their UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) online account at GOV.UK. It gives you temporary, read-only access to their immigration status so you can verify their right to rent.

The critical detail: Right to Rent share codes always start with the letter R. Codes starting with W are Right to Work codes — they look identical otherwise, but entering a W-code into the landlord portal returns nothing useful. Codes starting with S are general status view codes, equally useless for tenancy verification.

If your tenant hands you a code that doesn't start with R, send them back to their UKVI account to generate the correct type. They need to select "Right to Rent" specifically, not "Right to Work" or "View my status."

Share codes remain valid for 90 calendar days from the date the tenant generates them. A single code can be reused across multiple property applications within that window, so tenants applying to several landlords simultaneously don't need to generate a new code each time.

Step-by-Step: Running the Check

Once you have an R-prefix share code and the tenant's date of birth, the process runs through the official GOV.UK landlord-facing portal:

1. Enter the share code and date of birth into the portal fields
2. Review the profile that comes back — it shows the tenant's photograph, full name, immigration status, and any conditions on their permission to rent
3. Compare the photograph against the person in front of you (in person or via live video call)
4. Save the full profile page — print it or save as PDF
5. Keep a date record: the saved profile includes the check date; if your copy does not show it, retain a secure record of the date with the evidence

You must complete the check yourself on the official portal. Accepting screenshots, exported PDFs, or printouts that the tenant generated from their own account does not establish a statutory excuse. Neither does asking the tenant for their UKVI login credentials — never request those.

When the Share Code Doesn't Work

The most common reasons a share code fails:

Wrong code type. The tenant generated a Right to Work code (W prefix) instead of a Right to Rent code (R prefix). Solution: ask them to regenerate with the correct check type selected.

Code expired. Share codes expire after 90 days. If the tenant generated the code weeks ago during an earlier property search, they'll need a fresh one.

System outage. The UKVI online service does experience downtime. If the portal itself is unavailable, you cannot accept alternative evidence (tenant screenshots, printouts of their account page) as a workaround. If the tenant's circumstances make them eligible, submit a request to the Landlord Checking Service to verify their status while the system is down.

Account data mismatch. Occasionally a tenant's digital record hasn't been updated — a recently granted visa extension, a name change, or an EU Settlement Scheme status that hasn't migrated fully to the eVisa system. Direct the tenant to the Home Office eVisa resolution service to get their record corrected. If they still cannot provide evidence after contacting the Home Office, use the Landlord Checking Service where the tenant meets its criteria.

Who Uses Share Codes (and Who Doesn't)

Share codes are the verification route for tenants who hold digital immigration status: eVisa holders, EU Settlement Scheme participants (settled and pre-settled status), and anyone with a UKVI online account tied to their current permission to stay.

For British and Irish citizens, the available routes are a manual document check (passport, birth certificate plus supporting ID) or, for passport holders, a certified digital identity check through a registered IDVT provider.

Tenants with pending Home Office applications — those on Section 3C leave while an extension is being decided — may be unable to generate a standard share code. If a standard check cannot be completed, submit a Landlord Checking Service request where the tenant's circumstances make them eligible.

Time-Limited Status and Follow-Up Obligations

When the share code check reveals time-limited permission (a student visa, work visa, or pre-settled status), the statutory excuse it creates has an expiry date. You'll need to conduct a follow-up check before that excuse runs out.

The follow-up deadline is the latest of these dates: when the tenant's immigration permission expires, exactly 12 months from the date you conducted the previous check, or the expiry date of the document evidencing their right to rent if it expires later. Set a calendar reminder for the applicable dates and complete the follow-up check before the excuse expires.

The Proof That Protects You

The entire point of the share code exercise is establishing a statutory excuse — documented proof that you checked the tenant's immigration status before the tenancy began, which shields you from civil penalties even if the tenant's status later turns out to be irregular.

That excuse only holds if your records are complete: the saved GOV.UK profile page and secure record of the check date, retained for the duration of the tenancy plus one year after it ends. After that one-year post-tenancy window, destroy the records under UK GDPR data minimisation rules.

A complete compliance toolkit with verification decision maps, record retention coversheets, and follow-up tracking calendars is available in the Right to Rent Checks guide for England landlords.

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