Spotting tenancy fraud

Tenancy fraud is when someone is living in a home they shouldn’t be. Tenancy fraud is illegal and people doing it could go to prison or receive a fine.

It’s a big problem - it’s estimated that 1 in every 100 social homes are being lived in illegally. It denies homes to those who need them.

Think someone is committing tenancy fraud?

If you think someone is committing tenancy fraud, you can report it by getting in touch so we can look into it. If you’d rather do this anonymously, you are able to do so.

While tenancy fraud is not always easy to spot, here are some things you should look out for:

• A sudden change in who’s living in the home
• Someone being vague about who lives in the property or their relationship with them
• Increased anti-social behaviour at the property
• If your neighbour’s passed away and a friend or family member’s now living in the home
• The home seems to be abandoned
• Your neighbour’s talking about their landlord as a person, rather than a housing association or council

Tenancy fraud can include a few different things

• Unlawful subletting - when a customer rents out their home without our permission
• Abandonment - when a customer abandons their home and hasn’t told us
• Wrongly claimed succession - when a customer dies and someone tries to take over the tenancy when they’re not entitled to
• False Right to Buy/Right to Acquire - when a customer makes a Right to Buy or Right to Acquire application and gives false information
• Key selling - when a customer sells their keys to someone
• Getting a house by deception - using false information to gain a social housing home