London borough counter-fraud team recovers 20 social housing properties in 2022-23

Counter-fraud operations have helped the London Borough of Brent to recover 20 homes, collectively valued at £1.8m.

The annual counter fraud report to the council’s audit and standards advisory committee said this figure was calculated by using a Cabinet Office-issued value of £93,000 per property.

Brent said it was considering using a lower notional sum for property recovery of £42,000 for 2023-24 - rather than the Cabinet Office figure - to reflect the cost of fraudulent tenancy recoveries to the council.

In one case, an investigation started after a forced entry to carry out gas repairs when it was found the property had been abandoned with rent arrears in excess of £5,000.

Another case saw a referral received alleging a tenant had lived abroad for more than six years.

Enquiries revealed the tenant was not occupying their tenancy as their main and principal home and litigation resulted in Brent being awarded outright possession and full costs.

There were also 17 tenancy verifications where fraud was not identified but it was possible to mitigate fraudulent succession and right to buy applications.

The 20 frauds were consistent with the three-year average of 19 cases, though down on the 27 detected the previous year.

Of the 174 referrals logged this year, 39 were from Brent Housing Management, which manages some 8,000 council homes.

These represented 22.4% of the new investigations opened. Of the 20 successful fraudulent cases concluded, 16 were from Brent Housing Management and the remaining cases from internal proactive work and other housing related teams.

The report said there were 114 live housing investigations – of these 20 involved legal proceedings to recover the property, and a further seven have been concluded with recommendations to landlords that recovery action should be taken.

Mark Smulian