Prove your right to rent in England

Before you can rent in England, you need to prove your right to rent to your landlord.

How you prove your right to rent depends on your nationality and your immigration status.

If you’re a British or Irish citizen

If you’re a British or Irish citizen, you can prove your right to rent in England by showing your landlord one of the following:

• a British passport (current or expired)
• an Irish passport or passport card (current or expired)
• a certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen

If you do not have a passport, passport card or citizenship certificate, you may be able to use other documents to prove your right to rent.

You can use any 2 of the following if you have them:

• a current UK driving licence (full or provisional)
• a full birth or adoption certificate from the UK, Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man or Ireland
• a letter from your employer
• a letter from a British passport holder in an ‘accepted profession’
• a letter from a UK government department or local council
• proof that you currently get benefits
• a letter from a British school, college, or university that you currently go to
• a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate
• proof that you’ve served in the UK armed forces
• a letter from a private rented sector access scheme or a voluntary organisation that’s helping you with housing
• a letter confirming you’ve been released from prison within the past 6 months
• a letter confirming you’re on probation from your offender manager
• a letter from the UK police about the theft of your passport
• 
  

Anyone can use these documents to prove their right to rent - you do not have to be a British or Irish citizen.

If the document is a letter, email or DBS certificate, it usually needs to be dated within the last 3 months.

If you cannot prove your right to rent

If you’re not a British or Irish citizen, your landlord can ask for a Home Office right to rent check to see if you can rent in England.



If you’re a Commonwealth citizen, you may be able to get documents to show that you can rent in the UK through the Windrush Scheme.

Guidance for taking photos of documents



• no more than 1 document in each picture
• the picture is clear 
• any text on the documents is readable