Right to Rent on the new periodic tenancy: the re-check trap and Ground 7B tenant defence (RRA, 2026)

Right to Rent has been a feature of English residential lettings since 2014, but it sat in the background for most renters. The landlord did the check before the tenancy started, took a copy of the documents, and that was the end of it. Where the tenant had time-limited permission to be in the UK, the landlord would do one re-check around the date that permission expired - usually at the same time as the fixed-term tenancy was being renewed - and the cycle would stop there.

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 has changed the architecture without changing the underlying Immigration Act 2014. Fixed-term renewals are largely gone. Tenancies just continue, month to month, until either side ends them properly. The landlord's re-check obligation does not stop with the fixed term - it carries on, perpetually, at the intervals the Home Office requires. And Ground 7B (a no-right-to-rent Home Office notice) is a mandatory 2-week ground for possession that survived the RRA reforms unchanged.

What this means for renters with any time-limited right (Skilled Worker visa, student visa, Graduate route, family permits, EU pre-settled status that has not yet been converted to settled) is that they now sit in a re-check loop with no fixed-term renewal to anchor it. The trap to know about: re-checks the landlord misses on their own administrative oversight - and then Ground 7B notices served on the back of a stale Home Office record.

This walkthrough is for the renter who (a) wants to understand the new re-check reality, (b) wants to know what documents the landlord can ask for and which they cannot, and (c) is staring at a Section 8 notice citing Ground 7B and wondering how to defend it.

What changed under the RRA

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 did not amend the Immigration Act 2014. The Right to Rent regime survives untouched - both the landlord's obligation to check before granting a tenancy, and the schedule of follow-up checks for time-limited tenants.

What changed is the tenancy architecture around it.

Pre-RRA pattern. A 12-month fixed-term AST. The landlord did the Right-to-Rent check before move-in. The tenant's leave was, say, valid for 18 months. The first follow-up check (the longer of 12 months or the expiry of leave) would line up neatly with the fixed-term renewal. The landlord would do the re-check at renewal time. The cycle stopped at renewal.

Post-RRA pattern (1 May 2026). The tenancy is periodic by default. No fixed-term renewal anchor. The follow-up checks still happen on the same statutory schedule (the longer of 12 months from the last check or the expiry of the tenant's leave), but they happen against a continuous tenancy with no renewal touchpoint. Landlords with active periodic tenancies need to diarise the re-check dates themselves - and many will not.

Two consequences for renters with time-limited leave. First, more re-checks, more often - whatever cadence the renter's immigration status dictates, the landlord must keep pace with indefinitely. Second, more landlord errors - some re-checks will be missed entirely, some will be done late, and some will be done against stale Home Office records that no longer reflect the renter's current status.

The Home Office can serve a "no right to rent" notice on a landlord under the 2014 Act. That notice is the trigger for Ground 7B. The new periodic-tenancy reality means Ground 7B notices will start landing on tenants whose immigration position has actually moved on - and that is the defence opportunity.

The two strands of the case

Two distinct legal strands run through every Right-to-Rent dispute. They are independent. A defect in either is enough.

Strand 1 - the landlord's check obligation. Under section 22 of the Immigration Act 2014 the landlord must check that every adult occupier has a right to rent before granting a residential tenancy, and re-check time-limited occupiers at prescribed intervals. The landlord can satisfy the check by examining List A documents (indefinite right - e.g. UK passport, ILR biometric residence permit, EU settled status share code) or List B documents (time-limited - e.g. visa biometric residence permit, EU pre-settled share code, Home Office certificate of application). The check must be done in the prescribed way (in-person original document examination, or via an Identity Service Provider for British / Irish nationals, or via the digital share-code service for online-status tenants). The penalty for not doing the check correctly falls on the landlord, not the tenant.

Strand 2 - Ground 7B (no right to rent). Section 8, Ground 7B was added by the Immigration Act 2014 (Schedule 4). It allows the landlord to recover possession on a mandatory 2-week notice only where the Secretary of State has given the landlord notice that one or more of the adult occupiers do not have a right to rent. Two narrow gates: the Home Office notice must exist, and the notice must accurately reflect the position at the date of the Section 8 notice.

The defence opportunities sit at the intersection. Where the landlord skipped a re-check (Strand 1 failure) but is now relying on a stale Home Office notice (Strand 2 weakness), the tenant has two independent attacks.

What documents the landlord can ask for

The Home Office publishes a "Right to Rent: landlord's guide" that lists the acceptable documents. The tenant should know that list - and crucially, the tenant should know what is not on the list.

List A (indefinite right). UK passport, Irish passport, BRP showing indefinite leave, EU Settlement Scheme settled status share code, BNO visa with indefinite leave. One document from List A is enough, and no follow-up check is needed.

List B Group 1 (time-limited, paper-based). Visa BRP, Home Office Immigration Status Document, family permit. Follow-up check at the longer of 12 months or expiry of leave.

List B Group 2 (limited). Home Office certificate of application, Application Registration Card (asylum seekers permitted to work), Positive Verification Notice from the Landlord Checking Service.

Online status (the now-dominant category for new visas). EU pre-settled / settled status, post-Brexit visas issued from January 2021 onwards, BRPs that have been converted to digital status. The check is done by the landlord against a Home Office share code the renter generates - the landlord never sees the renter's documents, just the verified status the share code unlocks.

What landlords sometimes ask for that they are not entitled to:

• The renter's spouse / partner's documents (the check is per occupier; the renter does not have to evidence anyone else).
• A child's documents (under-18s are exempt from the check).
• A complete passport (when a share code or a single in-date document would do).
• A passport from a non-resident country (e.g. an Australian passport from a renter who entered on a different visa - irrelevant to current right to rent).
• The renter's bank statements, payslips, tax records, or "anything else to verify your status" (these are not Right-to-Rent documents and the landlord has no right to require them in this context).
• The visa application history, refusal letters, or appeal documents (none of these are required).

The data-minimisation principle (UK GDPR Article 5(1)(c)) gives the tenant the right to refuse to provide more than is necessary for the specific purpose. The purpose here is checking the right to rent. Anything beyond that is excessive data collection and the tenant can decline.

How early-RRA cases are going wrong

Three patterns are emerging in the first weeks of the new regime.

Pattern 1 - landlord asks for documents the tenant does not need to provide. The renter has digital status via a share code. The landlord asks to "also see your passport, payslip, and a letter from your employer to confirm". The renter, anxious not to lose the tenancy, hands over more than the check requires. There is no statutory obligation to provide more than what the prescribed check needs. The renter can offer the share code only and decline the rest, and the landlord cannot lawfully refuse the tenancy on that basis (it would risk a separate Equality Act discrimination claim, layered on top).

Pattern 2 - landlord misses the re-check date. The renter's leave expired but they had a pending application or had switched to a new status. The landlord did not diarise the re-check. Six months later, the landlord realises, panics, and serves a Section 8 Ground 7B notice on the basis of "no current evidence of right to rent". This is not how Ground 7B works. Ground 7B requires a Home Office notice; the landlord's own administrative oversight is not a Home Office notice. The defence is to point at the Home Office notice (or absence) and ask the court to dismiss.

Pattern 3 - stale Home Office notice. The landlord did the re-check, the check returned a "no right to rent" result, the Home Office issued a notice. The renter, between those events, has switched status - perhaps converted pre-settled to settled, perhaps got a new visa, perhaps regularised an irregular position. The Home Office notice is now stale. The defence is to evidence the current right to rent (share code, biometric residence permit, settled status confirmation) and show that the underlying state of facts has moved.

The three-check process

Before responding to a Ground 7B notice, work three checks.

Check 1 - do I have a current right to rent? Generate the share code (via GOV.UK "view and prove your immigration status"), check the BRP expiry date, locate the visa decision letter. If yes, the substantive defence is straightforward and the rest of the walkthrough is about getting the notice withdrawn.

Check 2 - did the landlord actually have a Home Office notice? The landlord can be asked to produce it under the rules of disclosure if proceedings are issued, and the renter can request it earlier under the UK GDPR Right of Access (a Subject Access Request - GOV.UK has a model letter). The Home Office notice will be dated and will name the relevant occupier(s). If no notice exists, Ground 7B is bad on its face.

Check 3 - is the Home Office notice stale? If the notice exists but predates a change in the renter's immigration status, the defence is to evidence the change and argue the Ground is not made out at the date of the Section 8 notice. The Home Office can be asked to withdraw the notice (it sometimes does, where the position has clearly moved).

The letter to the landlord (withdraw the Ground 7B)

If the renter has the current right to rent and the landlord is relying on a defective or stale Home Office notice, send the following letter before defending in court. Many Ground 7B notices are withdrawn at this stage once the landlord realises the position.

[Your name]
[Property address]
[Today's date]

[Landlord / managing agent name]
[Landlord / managing agent address]

By email: [agent email]
By post: [agent address]

Dear [Name],

Re: Section 8 notice dated [date] - Ground 7B - tenancy at
[property address]

I write further to your Section 8 notice dated [date] which
relies on Ground 7B of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988
(as inserted by the Immigration Act 2014, Schedule 4).

Ground 7B requires that the Secretary of State has given
notice to the landlord that the tenant (or one or more
occupiers) does not have a right to rent. The Ground is not
made out unless that notice exists, names the relevant
occupier(s), and accurately reflects the position at the
date of the Section 8 notice.

[Pick the relevant option]

[OPTION A - no Home Office notice]
You have not provided me with a copy of any Home Office
notice. I have made a Subject Access Request to the Home
Office under Article 15 of the UK GDPR and have received
confirmation that no Right-to-Rent notice has been served
on you in respect of my tenancy. Ground 7B is not made out.

[OPTION B - stale Home Office notice]
The Home Office notice you rely on (dated [date]) predates
the change in my immigration status on [date]. I enclose
[copy of share code result / BRP / settled status
confirmation] evidencing my current right to rent. Ground
7B is not made out at the date of the Section 8 notice.

[OPTION C - landlord administrative failure]
The Home Office has not served any notice on you. The basis
for the Section 8 notice appears to be that you did not
complete a follow-up right-to-rent check on the prescribed
date. The landlord's failure to complete the prescribed
check does not constitute a Home Office notice, and Ground
7B is not made out.

I invite you to withdraw the Section 8 notice within 14
days. If you do not, I will defend any subsequent
possession claim on the basis set out above and seek my
costs.

I have a current right to rent in the UK and have, on
request, provided you with the prescribed documents / share
code to evidence that right. I have not refused any
prescribed check.

Yours sincerely,

[Your full name]
[Phone] [Email]

The letter is constructed to do three things. Anchor the legal basis for Ground 7B precisely. State the procedural defect that defeats the Ground in the renter's case. Invite withdrawal in 14 days. Most landlords, faced with a defence letter that names the law, will take advice and either withdraw or escalate to court properly.

If it goes to court

If the landlord does not withdraw and issues an N5 claim citing Ground 7B, the defence is the witness statement we walked through in the N5 / N11R walkthrough - same shape, with the Right-to-Rent points pleaded as the procedural defect. Exhibit the share code result, the BRP, the Subject Access Request response from the Home Office, and the chase letter to the landlord.

Ground 7B is a mandatory ground only if the Home Office notice is valid at the date of the Section 8 notice. The two-week notice period is short, so file the N11R and witness statement urgently. The court has no discretion to refuse possession if the Ground is made out - so the entire case turns on whether the Ground is made out, which is exactly where the defence sits.

Where the RentSOS check fits

The free check at rentsos.co.uk is targeted at Form 4A rent-increase notices, but the underlying procedural logic - read the document, find the defect, write the right letter - works the same way for Right-to-Rent disputes. If the renter is dealing with both a rent-increase Form 4A and a Ground 7B notice (some landlords serve both together as a "we want the property back" combination), the check covers the Form 4A side and the walkthrough above covers the Ground 7B side.

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