More than 300 council homes that were illegally sublet or occupied by fraudsters have been seized back in a new campaign against cheating tenants in a London borough.
Southwark council says it has discovered widespread abuse by tenants who are breaking the law by secretly moving elsewhere so they can make money from renting out their local authority home.
Others have been found to have obtained their council properties by using false documents that misrepresented their identity or personal circumstances. Seven people have already been convicted of fraud, including one estimated to have cheated the council of £144,000, and another 12 are facing prosecution.
The new purge, which began last April, was prompted by concern that abuse of the system by tenants was depriving some of the 20,000 people on Southwark’s housing waiting list of the chance of accommodation. A total of 310 council homes have been recovered so far using methods such as unannounced visits to see who is living at a property, the investigation of documents to check their validity, and data-matching with other private and public sector organisations.
Those prosecuted include a woman who used a fake birth certificate and other forged documents to pose as a homeless mother and gain a council home. She was jailed for six months after pleading guilty to four counts of fraud.
Other cases involved a woman using a false driving licence to support her application for a council home and a tenant subletting his local authority flat for £800 a week despite working in America and owning property there.
Councillor Ian Wingfield, Southwark’s cabinet member for housing, said further action would be taken as other cheats were discovered and warned that the abuse was depriving the needy of accommodation.
“We need to make sure that every single council home is occupied genuinely. This illegal occupancy is not only depriving people who genuinely need housing, but occupants are often also exploited by unscrupulous ‘landlords’ who make huge sums in rent.
“We are constantly reviewing tenancy checks and cracking down on suspected housing cheats. If we find that someone is committing fraud, we will take whatever steps are necessary to evict and recover the property.”
Southwark is also investigating fraudulent purchases made under the “right to buy” scheme, which allows council tenants to acquire their homes at discounted prices.
At least three purchases have been halted so far.
The latest purge on fraudulent tenancies follows a campaign that led to 191 properties being recovered in 2011/12 from people who were either subletting or had obtained their homes through deceit.
