Biometric liveness, ID verification integrated with UK digital right-to-rent service

The Goodlord group, a UK property tech company, partnered with the identity verification provider Credas to offer its right-to-rent service digitally in addition to current checks starting in June 2023.

Right-to-rent legislation changed last year to allow England’s letting agents and landlords to use certified identity service providers (IDSPs) to run digital identity checks on British and Irish citizens.

The UK does not have a formal, obligatory ID card scheme. Landlords predominantly use passports as the main documentation for right to rent checks, which poses certain risks. As many as 8 million UK residents currently live without a passport. Moreover, due to the UK’s current cost-of-living crisis, potential tenants are more likely to falsify documents.

The use of identity verification technology (IDVT) can provide a secure accessible way to validate a potential tenant’s identity and streamline the screening process.

The service will include ID fraud checks, documentation verification, and biometric liveness detection. It will first be available on the Vouch platform, which is powered by Credas. It will be available on the Goodlord platform later in the year.

Given the recent acceleration in the digitization of right-to-rent checks, “we know that letting agents, landlords, and tenants have welcomed this as it reduces admin and brings lettings into the 21st century,” says Tom Goodman, Managing Director of Vouch. “Our partnership with Credas means we can take this a step further – integrating IDVT with our current referencing process and cutting out the middleman for letting agents.”

This announcement comes after iamproperty, the UK’s largest residential auctioneer, renewed their partnership with Credas. iamproperty’s network of 5,300 estate agents are able to integrate e-signatures, dynamic data capture forms, open banking, and compliance checks into their operations.

According to iamproperty’s new Online Auction Index, the auction market grew by 56% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to 2022, highlighting rapid digitization of real estate.

Article Topics

biometric liveness detection  |  biometrics  |  DIATF certification  |  digital ID  |  Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF)  |  identity verification  |  UK