Tenancy Fraud - what are the signs and how can you help
Unfortunately, the national need for Social Housing is greater than the number of properties available. When the minority of people abuse occupancy rules and try to cheat the system it indirectly harms those who are in genuine need of support.
Tenancy Fraud deprives those in need in our community of affordable homes and the support and services we could offer them.
It can be tricky for our team to identify this type of fraud as it often happens behind closed doors – that is why we investigate every report and we treat them with a case by case basis.
What does Tenancy Fraud look like? 
- Unlawful subletting (renting out some or all of rented property without permission).
- Knowingly giving false information on your housing application to get a larger or different housing offer.
- Wrongly claimed succession (taking over a tenancy if the resident passes away or moves out without the landlord's knowledge or consent).
- Key selling.
- Abandonment (not telling us that the tenants/your household won’t be returning to the property).
- Keeping a social rented home when you own another property
- Property exchanges without our permission
Common signs to look out for in your community.
- Increased anti-social behaviour at the property.
- Your neighbour may be being vague about someone who has moved in recently or they haven’t updated their occupancy details with us.
- If your neighbour has moved out or passed away and a friend or family member is now living in the home.
- No one has been seen at the property for a prolonged period of time.
- Your neighbour is talking about their landlord by name, as a person, rather than Fairhive or a housing association.
- New people moving in regularly
How we tackle Tenancy Fraud
Reports of suspected fraud will always be investigated and those who have reported fraudsters will remain anonymous.
We work closely with Bucks council and other external agencies to identify and tackle Tenancy Fraud. We are part of the newly formed Bucks / Herts and Oxfordshire Tenancy Fraud forum where we actively engage in best practice sharing with our partner agencies in an effort to clamp down on Tenancy Fraud. We also carry out data matching exercises and our neighbourhood managers are proactive in ensuring the correct people are living in our homes. We will take legal action to regain possession of our properties where necessary.
Those committing Tenancy Fraud will likely lose their tenancy and could lose any right to social housing in the future. They could also be fined and/or sent to prison.
In the last financial year, we investigated 13 new reports of potential Tenancy Fraud cases with some ongoing investigations from the previous year. Not all of these reports resulted in further necessary action but we did recover two of these properties as a result of our Tenancy Fraud casework & investigations. Both of the cases were recovered without having to resort to court action, which meant we were able to save money that otherwise would’ve been spent on court fees. We were able to make sure the properties were soon used to house those with a legitimate claim.
What you can do to help
We know there will be more instances of Tenancy Fraud that we aren’t yet aware of. If you suspect someone is being fraudulent, please fill in our form below or contact one of the team at tenancyfraud@fairhive.co.uk. Your report will be treated with complete discretion and we will only use your details to get in touch if we need more information or a statement.
