Contractor right-to-work checks: a letting agency workflow

Before allocating work, a letting agency should review how each contractor is engaged and who is responsible for right-to-work checks. From 1 October 2026, the UK scheme covers specified working arrangements beyond traditional employment, including individual sub-contractors, worker's contracts and online matching services. Some contractual chains also create extended liability. The answer depends on the agreement and how the work happens in practice.

Record who owns each required check and give the person assigning the job a clear release decision. A supplier invoice or a label such as "self-employed" does not settle the agency's position.

What changed on 1 October 2026?

The commencement regulations, made on 24 June 2026, brought section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 into force on 1 October 2026. The extension is effective, not a proposal awaiting a future start date. The Home Office published its final code of practice and employer's guide for that date. The Right to Work Scheme applies across the United Kingdom, including London agencies.

This is a separate work-permission decision from the tenant checks in our right-to-rent guide. Right to rent concerns occupation of a home in England; a tenant check does not establish someone's permission to do a contractor's job.

Map the agreement before requesting documents

The Home Office code distinguishes an individual operating an independent business, contracting directly with clients or customers, from arrangements where an individual obtains work through an intermediary or platform without operating an independent business in their own right. Genuine service purchases are not automatically employment. Equally, an intermediary arrangement can fall within the scheme.

For a property agency, write down who has promised to provide or arrange the work for the landlord and who actually engages the person attending. If the agency has contracted to deliver services onwards and outsources that delivery, assess the extended-liability provisions. Do not assume every customer buying a service has the same responsibilities. Get advice on the actual contracts where the position is unclear.

Separate the direct check from contractual-chain controls

Where the agency holds an in-scope direct working relationship, arrange the prescribed check before the person starts. Use the Home Office checklist to select an available method: a manual document check, the Home Office online service or an eligible digital verification service provider check. Verify the person's identity and permission for the work offered, including restrictions. Keep the dated evidence securely and diarise any required follow-up.

For extended liability, a generic supplier assurance is insufficient. The employer's guide explains the prescribed written statement, substitution controls and identity verification arrangements required to establish a statutory excuse where applicable. The statement covers checks, consent to further subcontracting with equivalent obligations, audit rights, enforcement provisions and cooperation with Home Office investigations. Arrange a contract review before work starts and retain evidence that the controls operate. An ordinary vendor-onboarding form cannot replace the required statement.

A statutory excuse is a defence against a civil penalty when the relevant requirements are met. Keep the evidence supporting it. The direct employer still carries its own checking responsibility; assess the agency's separate position in the chain.

Apply the date rules to existing suppliers

The employer's guide says that extended-liability arrangements entered into before 1 October 2026 are not brought into scope solely because work continues afterwards. A renewal, extension or variation needs assessment of its legal effect: its name alone does not establish whether a new arrangement has been entered into. The guide also states there is no general grace period for the new requirements.

Add a review trigger to procurement and contractor assignment. A new supplier, replacement operative, change in delivery model or contract renewal should reach the responsible manager before it becomes a routine dispatch. Keep the original agreement date visible so staff can distinguish a continuing arrangement from a new one. For a continuing engagement with the same employer and a valid statutory excuse, the guide says a fresh prescribed check is not needed before every assignment, subject to any required follow-up.

Make the result usable at dispatch

Keep passport copies and detailed immigration records in restricted storage. The job record can show the clearance decision, reviewer, date and reference without circulating those documents to every property manager. The Home Office checklist specifies keeping check evidence for the duration of employment and two years afterwards, then securely destroying it. Apply the relevant retention requirement to the evidence the agency is responsible for.

Suppose a supplier changes the person due to attend an inspection tomorrow. Staff should route the substitution to the responsible owner, confirm the applicable controls and update the job record. An urgent appointment needs an escalation route when evidence is incomplete. Define who can resolve it and how a properly cleared alternative will be arranged.

This clearance step belongs before the assignment approval described in our controlled maintenance workflow. It also needs a place in the branch handover, so a manager covering another office can see who approved the assignment and which evidence they reviewed.

Use the same screening rules fairly

Apply the screening process consistently, without selecting people for checks because of their name, accent, appearance or presumed nationality. The Home Office anti-discrimination code explains that checks must follow applicable equality duties. Give people a reasonable opportunity to use a prescribed checking method available to them; do not insist on a share code where their lawful route is a manual check.

Review onboarding alongside the staff and contractor offboarding checklist, and review the wider operating model on the Tekniti agency page. Give the checking owner a place in onboarding, procurement and branch handovers.

This is a UK operational guide, not advice on a particular contract or immigration case. Use the current Home Office materials and qualified advice to settle uncertain working arrangements before work begins.