Southern Housing Group

Clamping down on housing cheats

Most people applying for housing wait their turn to be allocated a home. Housing cheats don’t wait, they jump the queue. They use up valuable housing spaces which deprive those in greater need. They are guilty of housing fraud.

What is Housing Fraud?

There are different types of housing fraud; here are some of the most common:

• Unlawful subletting
• When a tenant lets out their council or housing association home without the knowledge or permission of their landlord they are unlawfully subletting.
• They often continue to pay the rent for the property directly to us, but charge the person they are subletting to a much higher rate. It is not fair to sublet and to profit from a property which could be given to someone in greater need.

Obtaining housing by deception
When a person gets a council home or council association home by giving false information in their application, for example not telling the landlord they are renting another council or housing association property, they are committing housing fraud.

Wrongly claimed succession
When a tenant dies, there are rules that say what should be done with the tenancy.
Wrongly claimed succession is when someone, who is not entitled, tries to take over the tenancy. For example, they might say they lived with the tenant before they died, when in fact they were living elsewhere.

What can you do to help?
We are working hard to track down cheats ends ensure that homes are given to those who are the next in line.

Your help in reporting housing fraud is important because you can see what’s going on in your neighbourhood.

• you might know that somebody has a home the landlord doesn’t know about or has given false information in their housing application
• you might suspect someone of housing fraud having seen them collect rent from your neighbours
• you might be suspicious because the tenants of a property keep changing

If you suspect someone is a housing cheat, let us know. It could make a real difference.

Call our dedicated housing fraud hotline on 0300 3031774 or email us at service.centre@shgroup.org.uk

Alternatively you can fill in and submit an online form which will get sent directly to a member of our team.

Anything you tell us will be held in the strictest confidence. All reports can be made anonymously.