Tenancy fraud
Tenancy fraud costs the taxpayer billions of pounds, and denies access to those with a genuine housing need.
Coastline Housing's aim is to ensure that we make the best use of our housing. Tenancy Fraud is illegal and unfair, and can mean people in genuine housing need are left waiting longer for a home.
What is tenancy fraud?
There are many different types of tenancy fraud, some examples include:
- key selling – where a tenant moves out of a property but sells the keys to someone else for a one off price
- sub-letting – this is where a tenant is not living at the property, and letting out parts or all of the property to someone else often at a higher rate than we would charge
- unlawful assignment – this could be when false information is provided in order to obtain a tenancy following the death of a tenant
- false application – this is where a tenant provides us with false information in order to obtain a tenancy
- non-occupation – keeping a tenancy at the property whilst using another property as their main residence
How you can help us
If you suspect someone is committing tenancy fraud, report it to us using My Coastline or email customer.service@coastlinehousing.co.uk
Please include as much information as possible to help with our investigation.
Any information you provide us will be kept confidential at all times and dealt with the strictest confidence. Please do not hesitate to contact us with further information if appropriate.
What will we do?
Using the information you provide us, we will investigate the allegation and make use of information from other sources such as other landlords and external agencies.
After a successful investigation we will seek possession of the property so we can allocate it to people who are in genuine need.
We take tenancy fraud very seriously and will also notify Cornwall Council, who are able to prosecute under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013.
Depending on the severity of the fraud being committed, this could result in several punishments:
- A fine of £5000 for lesser offences
- A fine of up to £50,000 and/or a jail sentence of 2 years for more serious offences
Other fraud
If you suspect someone is committing other forms of benefit fraud, such as having people live in the property with them that shouldn’t be there, please visit the National Benefit Fraud Hotline page for contact details.