Key amnesty 1-30 April

Posted on the 26th February 2025

Tenancy fraud is a criminal offence and offenders can be prosecuted under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 (POSHFA). You can be fined, imprisoned or both. The courts also have the power to make you pay back any profit made from the fraud.

The National Fraud Authority have estimated the cost of tenancy fraud to be £900 million.

• If we evict you for tenancy fraud, you will be regarded as having made yourselves intentionally homeless and will not receive assistance from other housing providers.
• If we take court action, you will also incur court costs.
• The criminal penalties are up to two years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.
• Profit orders can be made against unlawful income from subletting.

Misrepresentation – If a person fails to tell us a fact or tells a lie in order to be granted a property or to be transferred to a larger property, then they are misrepresenting facts.

Subletting – if a person moves out and lets someone else live in their home instead, this is subletting. It doesn’t matter whether it’s to a family member, a friend, or anyone else, or even if you don’t make a profit – it’s still illegal.

Succession fraud – when a tenant dies and a person claims the right to succeed by saying they have lived there for the required period when they in fact haven’t.

Key Selling – If a social tenant is granted a tenancy but never moves in and instead sells the keys to a third party or moves out and sells the keys instead of returning them to us.

Abandonment – To move out of a social property and leave it empty without telling us is also tenancy fraud as it’s failing to notify of a change in circumstances. We have recently repossessed an abandoned property.

• If any of the above apply to you, hand back your keys to any staff member with no questions asked. If you do this during the amnesty, we guarantee that you will not be prosecuted for tenancy fraud. All you need to do to finalise the process is complete a short form signing over the tenancy.
• After the 30th April, our investigations will resume as normal and you may be subject to prosecution.

Queries can be emailed to our dedicated fraud email or you can call our Customer Services team. If you suspect tenancy fraud you can report it to us confidentially.

fraud@kenistonha.co.uk / 01689889700