What is Social Housing Fraud?
Social Housing Fraud is often referred to as Tenancy Fraud. There are several types, including:
• Unlawful subletting - where a tenant rents out their home without the knowledge or permission of the landlord
• Obtaining housing by deception - where a person gets a home by giving false information on their housing application
• Wrongly claimed succession - where the resident dies and someone tries to take over or succeed the tenancy when they are not entitled to
• Key selling - where a resident is paid to pass on their keys in return for a one-off payment
• Unlawful assignment - where a resident stops using their tenancy as their main or principal home, allowing another person to live there without permission from the landlord
Why it's important to tackle Social Housing Fraud
Social housing is a valuable public resource. It is important, given the shortage of affordable homes, that the Devon Home Choice partners make the best use of social housing in Devon, and ensure that the people living there are legally entitled to be there.
People who are in need of social housing will have to wait even longer if homes continue to be occupied by people who have no right to live there.
How will the Devon Home Choice partners tackle Social Housing Fraud?
Each of the Devon Home Choice partners have agreed the steps they will take to prevent, detect and take action against social housing fraud.
This includes the Devon local authorities submitting annual returns to the National Fraud Initiative to identify potential fraudulent applications.
Please refer to the individual Devon Home Choice partner local authority or landlord for further details. Please click here for a list of Devon Home Choice partners and links to their websites.