Partner Article

Social housing Fraud Act: what you need to know

It’s estimated that more than 100,000 social housing properties are subject to fraudulent practices. In response to these findings, the government has established the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act – this puts aside £9.5m to go towards taking down tenancy fraud. How will this impact the levels of social housing fraud in the future?

The local authorities will have the power to apprehend any tenants illegally subletting their social housing for personal gain. Under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act, social housing tenants won’t be able to a) sublet part of the property, if it’s a breach of tenancy, b) cease to occupy the property, or c) the worst offence: both ‘a’ and ‘b’ together.

Punishment

For offence ‘a’ and ‘b,’ you can find yourself with a £5,000 fine. However, if you are found to be illegally practicing ‘c,’ the punishment is much more drastic: two-year jail sentence and/or a heavy fine that could be as much as £50,000. You may also have to pay back any unlawful profit funds that the authorities have sniffed out.

It will need to be proven that the tenant has sublet or abandoned the property (hard evidence will need to be procured). But the former offence will need evidence of dishonesty to reach the more severe penalties.

Defence

There are options for your defence, if you’re accused of social housing fraud. If the tenant has ceased to occupy the property because of real or threatened violence, then the authorities will take that into account. Also, if you’ve taken in a member of your family, because of a threat or instance of violence, you may be let off the hook. If however, the situation doesn’t improve, it will be important to consider the support and defence skills of a criminal defence solicitor.

In Court

The authorities must get the ball rolling within 6 months of amassing enough evidence to take tenancy fraudsters to court. If there has been a 3 year hiatus since the offender performed an act of fraud, the local authorities cannot take the person in question to court.

According to the newly amended Housing Act (1988), if an assured tenant parts ways with their property or illegally sublets it, they are barred from social housing for the rest of their life. Now, investigators will be able to look into potential tenancy fraudsters’ records through third party groups, such as utility providers. There will be greater transparency, throughout the system, and smarter approaches to catching social housing fraudsters.

How Will This Work?

Who will take responsibility for prosecuting tenancy fraud? Seeing as the authorities make the first steps, do they act on behalf of social housing providers? Councils already have exceptionally tight budgets. Will this act help social landlords deal with the issue of fraud?

A tenant must be proven ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ to be guilty, so the legal claim against them should be fairly straight forward, with the right evidence to support it (in theory).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Denver Burke .