Hi, My wife is soon going to apply for the 'Family of a Settled Person' visa from outside the UK (from the Philippines). I saw somewhere that the UK spouse needs to submit a 'Letter Verifying Accommodation Agreement'. I live in privately rented accommodation in Surrey and I have already given my wife the tenancy agreement. Does this mean that I also need to ask my estate agents to write a letter, additional to the tenancy agreement?
I was advised to submit the following items relating to accomodation. 1. A copy of the tenancy agreement. 2. A signed and dated letter from the landlord or agency confirming permission for the additional (named) persons to live in the property (because their names do not appear on the tenancy agreement). 3. A property inspection report from a suveyor confirming that the property will meet both the space and number of rooms requirements of the statutes such as the 2004 housing act. I used these people. http://www.hussaindesigns.co.uk/building-surveys.php There are others.
We submitted a tenancy agreement and a letter from the landlord stating they are aware that there will we another person living in the flat. I was only referred as 'fiancée' in the letter despite my then boyfriend's request of putting my complete name in it. My then fiancé did not use any services on property inspection. He just took photos and sketched a floor plan of our flat. Anyway, we still got the visa in just 20 calendar days.
I noticed that the site I mentioned earlier (I am not affiliated with them) had a link to the UKBA accomodation requirements which basically summarises (as I understand it) the requirements of the 2004 and 1985 housing act. http://www.hussaindesigns.co.uk/ukba-requirements.php I suppose it depends on the individual case - if you have a huge house that clearly exceeds the requirements, then perhaps its not so much of a risk to omit a report. However, if you're a borderline case, then I would imagine that a survey would place you in a much stronger legal position.
I got the Local Council to survey my house but they completely ignored the 1985 Housing Act, choosing only to look at Health & Safety but they did measure room size. So, I asked the surveyor to include the room sizes in his report, which he did.
