Tenancy fraudsters – don’t let them get away with it!

Local authorities in South Essex were recently accused of having an approach to tenancy abuse which ranged from "the lackadaisical to the wimpish".

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and South Essex Homes are very proactive when it comes to cracking down on such crimes.

But both are determined not to be complacent and have appealed for the public to continue being vigilant by acting as their eyes and ears in the town.

In a bid to combat sub-letting and other housing frauds photographs are now taken of all new tenants moving into council-owned properties.

This happens even when legitimate amendments to tenancies take place, such as switches from sole tenancy to a joint tenancy.

Officers from South Essex Homes carry out an annual audit of one in five council-owned properties in a bid to uncover potential sub-letting.

Anna Waite, Executive Councillor for Adult Social Care, Health & Housing, said: "The charge that local authorities in Essex are wimpish about tenancy fraud cannot be levelled at Southend.

"South Essex Homes is very proactive in this area and audit 20 per cent of our properties every year. The message has gone out that we won't tolerate sub-letting and it seems to have sunk in.

"But we will never totally eradicate the problem and we need our residents to continue being vigilant and to contact us if they suspect tenancy fraud is taking place."

The most common types of tenancy misuse are:

• Unlawful sub-letting, including sub-letting the whole property to a single household or multiple sublets within one property
• Non-occupation by tenants as their principal home
• Wrongly claimed succession
• Unauthorised assignment and
• Key selling - where the tenant leaves the property and passes on the keys to someone else in return for a one-off lump sum payment or favour.

Andrew Moring, Executive Councillor for Support Services, said: "Tenancy fraud is a serious issue.

"People who profit from sub-letting properties which don't even belong to them are defrauding us and the borough's council tax payers money.

"Due to our proactive approach we don't have a serious problem with tenancy fraud but it does go on.

"If residents have suspicions about their neighbours I would urge them to contact us so we can investigate. It's in all our interests."

Sub-letting is an informal agreement which tenants make with other people that allows them to live in their property.

If tenants continue to claim housing benefit when they are no longer living in the property they are acting fraudulently and are liable to prosecution.

Anyone with suspicions about tenants in council-owned properties is urged to contact South Essex Homes on their freephone number 0800-833160.