What is social housing tenancy fraud?
Social housing tenancy fraud is a serious crime that can result in a jail sentence and it denies genuine people in need the opportunity of a home. Fraud can occur in a number of ways:
- Subletting by the tenant of a social housing property to someone else who is not the tenant
- Providing false information in a housing application to gain a tenancy;
- Unlawfully passing the social housing property to a relative or friends,
- Failing to use a property as the principal home, abandoning the property, or selling the key to a third party
What to do if you suspect tenancy fraud?
If you suspect that tenancy fraud is happening within Elmbridge, please email fraud@elmbridge.gov.uk, call 01372 474291 with details or report social housing fraud online and we can investigate it.
Cost of tenancy fraud
The Audit Commission has estimated that the cost to the local taxpayer for misused social housing property is equivalent to the cost to a council of providing temporary housing for a homeless household. This is estimated to cost up to £18,000 per year. In Elmbridge, three properties that were fraudulently occupied were recovered in 2015/16 and are now being properly used, giving the occupiers a better life and saving taxpayers an estimated £54,000.
