Housing minister and Chartered Institute of Housing launch team to fight tenancy fraud

The government and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has announced the creation of a new national action team to fight tenancy fraud in the social housing sector.

The team, which will be based at the CIH, will provide support and advice to help social landlords and housing professionals to tackle unlawful subletting and to “make the most of their existing housing stock”.

At the same time, the government announced a grant of £19m to help 51 councils in England tackle social housing tenancy fraud. The money will be available to spend on dedicated housing officers to investigate allegations, and tenancy audits to ensure the lawful tenants are living in the property.

The creation of the national action team coincides with the publication of  new guidance on tackling tenancy fraud published by the CIH, which follows a series of workshops and other research conducted amongst social landlords. The guidance can be downloaded by clicking on the following link:  http://www.cih.org/practice/downloads/HousingTenancyfraudguide.pdf.

The CIH's research found that those local authorities which had dedicated specialist investigation teams had higher levels of success in the recovery of unlawfully held properties. Due to the complexity of the cases and the determination of the fraudsters to conceal their activity, specialist investigators have more success in uncovering fraud than teams which relied on general housing officers to do this work.

It also found that fraud prevention activity is critical.  Landlords who photographed new tenants and carried out credit checks as part of their due diligence before issuing housing places were better able to prevent and deter fraud.

The CIH said that another crucial factor in fraud reduction is the ability and willingness of councils to share information, for example on existing tenancies and waiting lists with other bodies, such as housing associations.

In response, the housing minister Grant Shapps said that the government is looking to lower the cost of using the services of credit reference agencies to help social landlords identify potential cheats. The government is working with the National Fraud Authority to develop standard contracts for councils to agree with credit reference agencies, at standard prices, to lower the costs of using their services.

The minister said: "Tenancy fraud costs this country billions of pounds, but it's not just the money that's wasted. The housing waiting list has doubled and tenancy fraud means that tens-of-thousands of people who could otherwise be housed are losing out because of cheats. We cannot afford to ignore this problem.

"That's why today I'm launching a national crackdown, bolstering the efforts of councils across the country with £19million Government cash. I'm also going to back them further with a dedicated national action team to help tackle tenancy fraud.

"The start of today's campaign is part of a wider Government effort to ensure council homes go to those who need them most. That's why I've launched plans for the biggest shake up in social housing for a generation, including the introduction of more flexible tenancies and greater fairness in the way social homes are allocated."

The government estimates that at least 50,000 social homes in England are being unlawfully occupied and as many as one in 20 social homes in some inner London boroughs are illegally sublet.

Joanne Kent-Smith, Senior Policy and Practice Officer at CIH, said: “In market areas where private rents are significantly higher than social rents the risk of unlawful subletting increases.  Substantial profits can be made, particularly in situations involving organised criminal activity. Social landlords should therefore have robust processes in place to ensure the tenants they believe are residing in their properties really are.”