A big topic in the news today is the story that tenants who have been subletting their social housing could face up to two years in prison. On the face of it that may seem like quite a harsh penalty, but at the end of the day, that is a form of fraud and it is certainly an abuse of the system. A system that has enabled them to live at a low cost.
Fraud Must be Stopped
Grant Shapps has stated that he wants to make social housing fraud a criminal offence as this would be the only way to deter tenants from cheating the system. He has also spoken about his desire to introduce other proposals in an attempt to make it easier to find those that are indeed subletting their homes in order to then tackle the issue and free up homes for the people that need it most.
It is believed that between 50,000 and 160,000 social homes in England are currently unlawfully occupied. There is therefore quite a lot of scope in that figure, which suggests that this is a very inaccurate prediction simply because the fraudsters have been able to cover up the fact that they are scamming the government by subletting their social houses. The cowboy landlords are also extremely unlikely to bother with any landlord insurance quotes. Furthermore, it is also predicted that these unlawfully occupied homes are costing around £900 million each year.
What We’ve Been Waiting For
Now, what I do find to be quite ridiculous is that such a type of fraud is not even a criminal offence at the moment. Hence why Shapps is so keen on making it a criminal offence! The harshest punishment currently being handed out to those who are cheating the system is to simply hand back the keys for the properties they do not live in. My question is, why has it taken so long, and cost so much money, before a plan has been put in place to tackle such offences?
Well, nevertheless, plans that have been announced today will see social housing tenancy abuse punished by a maximum penalty of two years in prison, and a £50,000 fine if the case goes to Crown Court.