Supporting Charity Fraud Awareness Week to help tackle housing fraud

We’re putting housing fraud in the spotlight as we support Charity Fraud Awareness Week.

We are committed to managing risk of housing fraud – helping to improve supply of social homes for people who need them and preventing crucial funds being taken away from services for our customers.

In the past three years we have received and investigated 89 reports of housing fraud related to a variety of different types of housing fraud, from customers not using their property as their only or principal home, to unauthorised sub-letting to another person in return for financial gain.

Our Legal Services team works proactively with partners including Oldham Council and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to prevent, detect and respond to housing fraud.

We investigate all reports and take action against offenders. They are likely to lose their tenancy and they could lose their right to social housing in the future if they’re caught committing housing tenancy fraud.

Offenders may also be fined or sent to prison if the fraud is serious.

Mohammed Yasser, Head of Legal Services says:

“Social housing is a valuable asset, providing homes for people in genuine need. Unfortunately, it is estimated that more than 100,000 social homes nationally are subject to some form of tenancy fraud, and with thousands of people on social housing waiting lists in Oldham and the surrounding areas, housing fraud is cheating people out of much-needed homes and is completely unacceptable.

“To step up our work to tackle housing fraud, we recently signed up to the Fraud Pledge to actively to prevent fraud wherever it might occur in our organisation.

Building on this, during this week of action we want to highlight the different types of tenancy fraud and encourage customers to report cases to us if you suspect someone is committing this crime. You can make reports anonymously and all information you supply will be held in the strictest confidence.”

What is housing fraud?

There are different types of housing fraud and the most common are:

Housing tenancy fraud, such as:

• Giving false information on housing applications
• Customer not using the property as their only or principal home
• Subletting without permission
• Living in a property after someone has died, without the right to do so
• Key selling – a customer giving their keys to another person in return for financial gain without informing us, their landlord.

Right to Buy/Right to Acquire fraud, such as:

• Giving false information when applying to buy the house they have been living in
• Attempting to purchase a property whilst not using it as their sole or principal home
• Not disclosing previous rent arrears, possession orders, transfers or evictions.

Help us tackle housing fraud

Your help in reporting housing fraud is important because you can see what’s happening 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 committing housing fraud, let us know. You can make reports anonymously and all information you supply will be held in the strictest confidence.

How to report housing fraud

You can report housing fraud anonymously by:

Emailing fraud@fcho.co.uk 

Filling in a quick form on our website

Calling us on 0161 393 7117