As with nearly everything else, at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Government guidance to landlords on how to undertake right-to-rent checks was altered to account for the stay at home and social distancing policies. During this period landlords have been able to carry out adjusted checks, by receiving scanned copies of documents and then viewing the originals over video call.

The Government has now confirmed that:

• From 17 May 2021, the temporary measures will cease and landlords will need to check original hard copy documents.
• However, there will no longer be a need to go back and check the original documents that were presented via the adjusted checks during the past 14 months, which was the intention when the adjusted process was first introduced.

Full details can be found on the Government website.

This shows that whilst many electronic ways of working adapted during Covid-19 are probably here to stay, that is not the case in all circumstances and in this instance, the virtual approach is not a sufficient replacement for checking original documents.