What is tenancy fraud?

Tenancy Fraud covers a wide range of criminal offences some of which are set out below.  The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2014 relates to the illegal sub-letting of Social Housing properties making it a criminal offence from that date.

Types of Tenancy Fraud

The most common types of offences are:-

  • Application Fraud where a prospective tenant either knowingly provides false information on their housing application in order to gain a property or applies for multiple properties in different locations and through different landlords
  • Key-selling fraud :where a tenant or an employee of a housing association receives a one-off payment to give the keys of a property to someone who is not entitled to live there
  • Right to Buy/Right to Acquire fraud where a tenant knowingly provides false information when applying to buy the house they live in under the scheme
  • Subletting fraud where a tenant rents out all or part of their property on a short or long-term basis to someone else for private rental rates without the knowledge or permission of the landlord
  • Succession fraud where a person moves into a property when the legal tenant either dies or moves away and that person does not have the right to move in

If the person living in the house is not the tenant, they could be committing tenancy fraud.
If you are caught, you are likely to lose your tenancy and could lose your right to social housing in the future.
You could also be fined and/or sent to prison.

How we tackle tenancy fraud

We work closely with local partners and external agencies to identify and tackle tenancy fraud and we take legal action to regain possession of our properties.

Any cases of suspected fraud will always be investigated. We have arrangements in place which allow us to share information with other agencies and we often work together on cases.

How you can help

Residents are the eyes and ears of our estates. If you suspect it, report it. Tenancy Fraud is a criminal offence and something we take very seriously. Please contact our Business Support Hub on 01626 322722