When a tenant rents a property from a landlord, this is usually a direct transaction. Tenancy agreements vary but most tenants can sublet part of their property if they have a written agreement from their landlord. Many tenancy agreements state that subletting is not allowed.
About half of tenants who are in social housing properties are likely to rent through a housing association as secure tenants. Only if the landlord has given consent can a tenant sublet part of their home, secure tenants are not allowed to sublet all of the property. This is a criminal offence and can lead to eviction, prosecution and an unlawful profit order being issued to repay the illegal rent.
Consent to subletting rooms is often not given as landlords lose their control over who is living in their property. This can lead to a range of issues that may make the property unsafe or lead to damage that costs significant amounts to repair.
What are the facts about illegal room subletting?
According to recent statistics, as many as 1 in 6 tenants have sublet to another person who is not on the tenancy agreement. 34% of these people did not inform their landlord.1
It’s fair to say that subletting has moved on from simply subletting a whole property, as people have gone as far as to rent out each room for profitable purposes. The truth is that often the original tenant who has arranged the illegal subletting of rooms is not even still in the UK after leaving to go abroad.
This is a very complex situation for housing associations to unpick, as it takes up a huge amount of time and effort to track down all of the responsible perpetrators of this kind of tenancy fraud.
Organisations, such as HTFI, who work alongside housing associations often receive tips about illegal room subletting, sometimes from the public but also as the result of staff diligence aligned with our proactive training programmes.
People who have illegally sublet in violation of their tenancy agreement can be taken to a magistrate’s court and, if found guilty, face a fine with no maximum upper limit.
Real cases of illegal room subletting
A recent case involves a housing association where a housing officer had noticed some unusual activity in the rental account. There was a very high credit on the account which seemed out of place, particularly as this tenant was in receipt of benefits.
This housing association is one of our regular partners, and they asked us to investigate the case as the rental account showed a highly irregular credit of £8,000.
The tenant whose name was on the tenancy agreement actually had a very limited credit footprint at this address. Searches uncovered the fact that there were other people using the address who had greater connections and credit footprints associated with this particular property.
In fact, the local council confirmed that benefits were in payment but that the tenant’s family had left eight years previously, in 2015. This information was shared between the housing association and HTFI, so it was decided that a property visit was necessary.
How did HTFI help?
As a result, our HTFI team visited the address but we couldn’t get a response at first. However, we managed to get lucky as another person called at the property which gave us access.
Once inside, we met an occupier of the property who claimed the tenant was away in Africa. On inspection, we discovered that all three bedrooms in the property were individually padlocked – a clear indication of subletting. Tenants at this property are not allowed to sublet, so this was in clear breach of the tenancy agreement.
We then made enquiries with the UK Border Force, who informed us that the original tenant had left the UK over two years before and had not returned.
Armed with all of this evidence, we were able to work with the housing association to take back this three bedroomed house so that it can be properly taken care of and used for official tenancy.
Now, it is already being made ready for a family who deserve a safe and secure roof over their heads with an official tenancy agreement in place.
Our teams work closely with housing associations to ensure tenancy agreements are respected and upheld, and that only those tenants that are approved by the landlord are living in the property.
Our work with housing associations
We aren’t just investigators but offer a range of supportive services for housing associations. We are experienced in helping housing associations with vetting processes and we help protect them from fraud vulnerabilities.
Our protocols help strengthen housing associations’ procedures so that we support them in avoiding fraudulent actions.
We can support you
Here at HTFI (Housing Tenancy Fraud Investigations), we are a highly skilled team made up of professionals with extensive experience, including ex-police officers, investigators, those with detailed knowledge of the law, housing associations and local authorities in order to deliver social housing fraud prevention.
As a result, we are specialists in the provision of support for social housing providers so that they can accurately identify a wide range of fraudulent situations, such as social housing fraud, housing benefit fraud, illegal subletting, occupancy fraud and false representation of housing needs.
Supporting housing associations and social landlords, the skilled team at HTFI ensure that their properties are being used as the tenants’ ‘only and principal home’.
We help landlords regain control of misused properties, enabling them to move genuine tenants off the waiting list.
If you suspect any aspect of social housing fraud or related issues, please get in touch with us.
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