Social Housing Fraud

Council housing fraud is a very serious crime, and every tenancy obtained dishonestly deprives others of a home.

We take social housing fraud extremely seriously as it prevents our homes being used by those with a genuine need. We want to make the best use of the homes we own and ensure that the people living there are legally entitled to be there.

What is social housing fraud?

Common types of social housing fraud include:

• Not telling the truth when applying for a property
• Sub-letting a Council home without permission including using it as an Airbnb
• Living in a property after someone has died or the person who’s name the tenancy is in without the right to do so
• Not living in the property as their only or main home
• Giving false information when applying to buy a Council home under the Right to Buy or Rent to Buy schemes
• Giving false information to us when applying to succeed a tenancy, such as giving false information about living in a property
• Key-selling where a tenant is paid to pass on their keys in return for a one-off payment
• Unauthorised mutual exchanges between tenants

What action can you take against someone who commits social housing fraud?

The action we take will depend on the type and scale of the fraud committed. Some of the options open to us are:

• Possession order to recover the property and carry out an eviction – if you have been evicted for social housing tenancy fraud it’s unlikely you will be given a social housing tenancy with any social landlord again
• Criminal prosecutions which can result in a prison sentence
• Compensation orders to recover the loss to the Council as a result of the fraud – if you have illegally sublet your home for example, we will seek an order to pay this back to the Council, including court costs

We can choose to pursue more than one of these options.

How do you investigate social housing fraud?

We will investigate all reports of housing fraud and act against offenders.

If we suspect housing fraud, we will begin an investigation to gather evidence, this can include speaking with neighbours, carrying out visits to your home, checking records, speaking to other internal departments and gathering evidence from other sources such as banks and social media.

We also take part in the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) which is an exercise that matches electronic data within and between public and private sector bodies to prevent and detect fraud. Any data matches help to highlight potential fraud and allow us to investigate fraud proactively.

We also carry out a number of checks before and during your tenancy to reduce social housing fraud, these include (not exhaustive):

• Taking a photo of you when you sign up for a new tenancy so we can check this when we visit you
• Ask you security questions that only the tenant would know when you contact us so we can check we are talking to the tenant and avoid any personal disclosure of information
• Ask for written evidence of occupation when completing succession investigations
• Carry out tenancy visits to check who is living in our homes
• Acting on properties that seem to be empty when someone should be living there

Checks can happen at any time during a tenancy, without any warning.

What can I do to help?

If you have a tenancy with us, you can also help by making sure that you keep all your information up to date. If there have been any changes in your household, we need to know.

The sort of changes we need to know about include:

• Someone has moved out
• Someone has moved in
• You have got married
• You have changed your name
• Your circumstances have changed
• You are moving out
• Any other changes along these lines

What should I do if I suspect someone of social housing fraud?

If you suspect someone of social housing fraud, please contact us and give us as much detail as you can so we can start an investigation. You can give us this information anonymously. We won’t be able to give you any feedback, but rest assured we will look into it.

Your help in reporting fraud is important because you can see what is happening in your community.

• You might know that someone has a home that we don't know about or if they have given false information in their housing application
• You might suspect someone of housing fraud if you have seen them collect rent from your neighbours
• You might be suspicious because the tenants of a property keep changing

If you suspect social housing fraud, please let us know. It could make a big difference to people in real need.