Research Shows That Subletting Scams Are On The Rise

Analysis from inventory service provider, No Letting Go, reveals that regular property visits can help to protect letting agents and their landlords from the growing risk of subletting scams. According to their data, a professionally compiled inventory and commitment to the check-out process can also help to provide financial cover in the event of property damage. There has been a rise in the number of subletting scams in recent months, particularly when it comes to fraudsters using short-term lets platforms to rent out their landlord's properties without permission. Read more on the Property Reporter website.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/new-research-shows-that-subletting-scams-are-on-the-rise.html

Airbnb Host Fined £100,000 For Letting Council Flat

An Airbnb host who rented out his central London council flat to tourists has been fined £100,000 and evicted. Council tenant Toby Harman, 37, created the fake identity "Lara" on Airbnb to rent out his studio apartment. The flat, in Victoria, had been advertised since 2013 and received more than 300 reviews, Westminster City Council said. Anti-fraud software had found Harman's first name in reviews and connected the listing to him. Harman's bank statements showed he had been receiving payments from Airbnb for a number of years. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49149983

7% Rise In Former Right To Buy Homes Now Rented Privately

Freedom of Information Act request responses from 111 councils – two-thirds of all stock-holding town halls in England – show 40.2% of former Right to Buy flats are now being sublet. This is a 7% rise from the 37.6% recorded in 2015 – a rate of growth which would see more than half of all former Right to Buy homes rented privately by 2026. The councils have sold a total of 180,260 leasehold properties under the Right to Buy since its introduction in 1980, with 72,454 now registered with an ‘away address’, indicating subletting. Read more on the Inside Housing website.

MP Warns Of Housing Strain Caused By Holiday Lets

Illegal sub-letters and property magnates are taking advantage of Airbnb and similar-style sites to rake in tax-free cash, an MP says. Labour's Karen Buck said renting out properties for short holiday lets can produce up to three times the income of more traditional flat rentals. Growth in the industry is also contributing to a loss of residential accommodation, she told the Commons. She wants the 90-day limit for renting out homes each year to be enforced. Ms Buck says the sharing phenomenon is putting a strain on housing stock, neighbours and cash-strapped councils that are having to deal with anti-social behaviour arising from noise and waste issues, over-crowding and a whole range of other forms of disturbance. Read more on the BBC website.

Council Agrees Innovative Tenant Shared Ownership Scheme

An east London council has moved a step closer to being the first in the country to offer its council tenants the opportunity to take up shared ownership of their council property. Members of Barking and Dagenham Cabinet agreed the tenant shared ownership scheme, called ‘Right to invest’, pending the outcome of a six week consultation period, which starts on Monday 14 March. This scheme will provide an affordable home ownership option for council tenants on lower incomes to meet their aspirations to become home. The scheme will be available to all tenants who meet the Right to Buy criteria, however, unlike Right to Buy, it will have a share ceiling of 70% meaning the property always remains a housing option for those on lower incomes and is protected from sub-letting. Read more on the Barking & Dagenham website.

'Inconsistent Message' Fuels Rise Of Illegal Subletting

A government that “wants the benefits but ignores the problems” must to do more to tackle a rise in illegal sub-letting says the residential landlords association (RLA) in response to ONS figures showing illegal subletting costs the London Borough of Tower Hamlets alone an estimated £13 million a year. Councils have long been trying to crack down on the problem, but the trends are travelling in the other direction propelled, says Mr Smith, by an “inconsistent message” from government. Illegal subletting can be prosecuted under criminal law if the tenancy is with a local authority and is a secure tenancy - this can also be a flexible tenancy in England. Read more on 24dash.

Half Of Tenant Subletting Occurs Behind Landlords’ Backs

Almost half of tenants who sublet their property do so without their landlord’s consent, according to new findings from the National Landlords Association (NLA). The findings come as the government recently announced proposals to introduce minimum room sizes in order to crack down on problems with private rented accommodation such as unauthorised subletting, which often results in overcrowded and cramped properties. Of the eleven per cent of tenants who say they have sublet all or part of their property before, just five per cent did so with their landlord’s permission. A quarter (26 per cent) of tenants say they have approached their landlord about subletting but have had the request declined, and 63 per cent say they have never asked their landlord about subletting their property. Read more on the NLA website.

Landlords Could Be Fined £3,000 For Failing To Check Tenants' Immigration Status

Landlords will need to check the immigration status of any new tenants moving into properties from next February or face a £3,000 fine, the government has announced. These 'right to rent' rules are set to be introduced for all new tenancy agreements from 1 February 2016 in England. As well as traditional landlords, individuals who sub-let, and homeowners who take in lodgers, must also check the right of prospective tenants to reside in the country.  Landlords will need to check and retain copies of certain documents that show a potential tenant has the right to live in the UK. These include:

·         UK passport

·         EEA passport or identity card

·         Permanent residence card or travel document showing indefinite leave to remain

·         Home Office immigration status document

·         Certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen.

Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Full Data Released: Right to Buy To Let

Nearly 40% of all council flats sold under the Right to Buy in England are now being rented out privately. Figures released by 91 councils under the Freedom of Information Act show councils sold 127,763 leasehold properties, with 47,994 leaseholders living an another address. This is a strong indication they are being sub-let. The full data reveals that Milton Keynes, Stevenage and Blackpool had the highest percentage of Right to Buy flats re-let, at 69.6%, 65.4% and 64.2% respectively. See all the figures on the Inside Housing website.

Council Homes Are Taken Back

Illegal subletting and not using a house as a main home were among the ways residents were found to be flouting tenancy rules. Sandwell council launched more than 200 fraud investigations during the past year and recovered a total of 115 properties. Deputy council leader Councillor Steve Eling said the authority was determined to catch cheats but it was a growing problem. “With the increasing shortage of affordable housing and the changes in right to buy legislation, tenancy fraud is becoming even more lucrative to some greedy people pocketing lots of money,” he said. The other ways people were caught misusing properties included not filling out home applications correctly. Some properties were also recovered after they were found abandoned. Read more on the Express & Star website.

£Millions in Right to Buy Fraud Uncovered By Council

Barnet Council has uncovered nearly £12 million in right to buy, tenancy and benefit fraud in a 12-month period. The London borough's anti-fraud team recovered 63 illegally sublet council properties after successful investigations and a tenancy fraud amnesty held late last year. The recovery of each property is calculated as being worth £150,000 – the equivalent average cost of building a new social housing unit. The team has also prevented 11 instances of people attempting to take advantage of the right to buy scheme when they were not entitled to.  Read more on 24dash.

Councils Making Gains against Social Housing Fraud

Councils have been making significant gains in tackling social housing fraud, such as illegally sub-let homes, the Audit Commission revealed in its latest annual assessment of how well local authorities are doing in detecting and dealing with a whole range of fraudsters.  Last year, councils recovered 2,642 homes that had been illegally sub-let; worth around the equivalent of nearly £400 million if they’d had to build the same number of properties. All told, the Government estimates that social housing fraud costs the public purse in the region of £845 million per year, but this latest successes measured by the Audit Commission represents a 51% increase in the detection of social housing fraud since 2011/12.  Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

New Housing Minister Pledges to Fight Housing Cheats

The new housing minister Kris Hopkins has pledged to hit fraudsters who rent out their social homes for profit with the "full force of the law".  Now the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act has come into force, anyone found guilty of committing tenancy fraud will face a fine and a custodial sentence of up to two years. The government has come up with £19 million in funding for councils across the country to combat the crime.  Kris Hopkins said: “The new powers will ensure social tenants found subletting their home will face the real threat of prison time and a fine, while social landlords will have the ability to recover the profits they make.”  Read more on 24dash.

New Housing Minister Pledges to Fight Housing Cheats

The new housing minister Kris Hopkins has pledged to hit fraudsters who rent out their social homes for profit with the "full force of the law".  Now the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act has come into force, anyone found guilty of committing tenancy fraud will face a fine and a custodial sentence of up to two years. The government has come up with £19 million in funding for councils across the country to combat the crime.  Kris Hopkins said: “The new powers will ensure social tenants found subletting their home will face the real threat of prison time and a fine, while social landlords will have the ability to recover the profits they make.”  Read more on 24dash.

What You Need To Know About the New Social Housing Fraud Act

At least 100,000 social housing properties are the subject of housing fraud, according to government estimates. In response to this, the government has introduced the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act and made £9.5m available to tackle the issue. But how does the act work for those dealing with the issue of subletting and prevent people from profiting from the scarce resource that is social housing?  Read more on the Guardian website.

Council Housing Fraud Crackdown Hailed 'Major Success'

A council's crackdown on social housing fraud has been hailed a "major success". Sandwell Council's drive to combat crooks has led to 44 homes being recovered and re-let. The six-month pilot scheme launched last November has resulted in 36 abandoned properties being detected and eight other properties being recovered due to illegal succession and/or subletting. In addition, three fraudulent right-to-buy applications were blocked and another 29 cases of suspected tenancy fraud are currently being investigated. Read more on 24dash.

Family Mosaic Identifies Illegal Sublets

Housing association Family Mosaic has worked with Landmark Information Group to access a range of address matching, data cleansing and property analysis services as part of a data quality verification and improvement programme, for its portfolio of over 24,000 homes.  As a result of the data analysis exercise just under 40 potential illegal sublets were flagged for further investigation, in addition to over 200 potential leaseholder re-sales or sublets where Family Mosaic did not have the data. In addition Landmark was able to verify specific property types, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms across the portfolio, potential discrepancies in council ward and local authority data, which the team can now investigate and verify.  Read more on 24dash.

Councils Need More Powers to Tackle Tenancy Fraud

In May, housing tenancy fraud will become a criminal offence, carrying a two-year prison sentence and a £50,000 fine.  The most recent estimates suggest that up to 98,000 homes are being let to people who either lied about their circumstances to jump the queue or are sub-letting their council house and pocketing the profits. But how much will the new legislation actually help councils to crack down on this abhorrent behaviour?  Restricted access to data held by utility companies, building societies, lettings agents and organisations like the TV Licensing Authority makes it difficult for council fraud teams to identify fraud or prioritise cases to have the maximum impact. Without the legal tools to request information, councils must rely on tenancy inspections and tip-offs from neighbours. Unfortunately, the new legislation on housing tenancy fraud doesn't include the necessary regulations to make data sharing mandatory. Read more on the Guardian website.

Third of Ex-Council Homes Now Owned By Rich Landlords

The multi-millionaire son of a Tory minister who presided over the controversial “right-to -buy” scheme is a buy-to-let landlord owning scores of former council flats.  A Daily Mirror investigation found a third of ex-council homes sold in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher were now owned by private landlords.  In one London borough almost half of ex-council properties are now sub-let to tenants. Tycoon Charles Gow and his wife own at least 40 ex-council flats on one South London estate. His father Ian Gow was one of Mrs Thatcher’s top aides and was Housing Minister during the peak years of right-to-buy.  Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what progress he has made on plans to bring forward legislative proposals affecting social housing tenants who sub-let a room.

Mr Prisk (edited reply): The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act received Royal Assent on 31 January. The Act creates new criminal offences of unlawful sub-letting by secure and assured tenants of social housing in England and Wales and provides for the courts to make orders for the recovery from defendants of profits made from unlawful sub-letting.  The Act does not cover, nor is there any intention to legislate for, the quite different situation where social tenants continue living in their property but rent out a spare room to a lodger. All secure tenants have a statutory right to take in a lodger and assured tenants are able to take in a lodger subject to any restrictions in their tenancy agreement.