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L&Q recovers 143 homes involved in tenancy fraud
L&Q revealed it has recovered 143 homes over the past year as the association continues to tackle property misuse.
The G15 landlord made 202 visits to homes identified as fraud risks between April 2023 and March 2024, resulting in 55 possession orders and nine voluntary vacation notices from residents.
Tenancy fraud includes illegally subletting social housing homes, providing false information to obtain a home and taking over a tenancy unlawfully.
It is estimated that each case of fraud costs the taxpayer £43,000.
Research from April 2023 found that at least 148,000 social homes could be subject to tenancy fraud.
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Nicola Evans, tenancy fraud manager at L&Q, said: “I’m so proud of my team for building on the success of previous years.
“Their continued efforts with our partners, colleagues and residents mean we’re recovering homes when waiting lists are at an all-time high.”
She added: “It’s sometimes said that tenancy fraud is a victimless crime – it’s anything but. With every property that’s sublet illegally and every tenancy obtained dishonestly, that’s another family or individual deprived of a home.”
L&Q revealed that it had received 601 new referrals over the 11-month period and reclaimed more than £40,000 in illegal profits.
The landlord established a dedicated tenancy fraud team in January 2022 and recovered 100 homes between January 2022 and March 2023.
L&Q is one of the largest housing associations in the UK. It posted a post-tax surplus of £147m for the 2023-24 financial year, up 268% compared with the £40m it recorded in 2022-23.
Meanwhile, its operating surplus, which excludes some one-off payments, more than doubled from £162m to £366m.
The rise in surplus came partly due to a rise in non-sales turnover, lower operating costs and a fall in the value of the landlord’s investment property.
However, L&Q warned that its results excluded any impairments subject to audit review. The landlord estimated that it could face impairment charges of £25m to £65m, which would lower the operating surplus figure.
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