With a recent investigation into tenancy fraud for HQN’s magazine revealing a huge variation in the numbers reported by councils and housing associations across England now is the time to learn from those who are actively tackling it.

Our analysis shows that more than half of the housing association reports on tenancy fraud to the regulator were ‘nil returns’, indicating they had nothing to report. The remaining 59 associations reported a total 204 tenancy frauds and more than half (60%) of them were reported by three associations.

We also know that council resourcing for fraud investigations has fallen since 2016 and there has been a shift towards tackling benefit fraud centrally rather than tenancy fraud locally.

This indicates a huge potential for increasing the numbers of homes recovered by landlords at a time when numbers of families stuck in temporary accommodation are going through the roof.

Meanwhile, the RSH’s Sector Risk Profile in 2023 identified fraud as a key strategic risk and, as part of the new Consumer Standards, registered providers must now take action to prevent and tackle tenancy fraud. The regulator will undoubtedly be looking at this during inspections if you have reported a nil return.

The sector has a moral, financial and regulatory imperative to tackle social housing tenancy fraud and it’s time to step up and learn from the best in the sector at this unique and practical event for councils and housing associations.

What will be covered:

• An overview of the legal framework for tackling tenancy fraud
• Practical tips on investigating fraud
• Case studies from councils and housing associations
• Panel discussion and a chance to quiz the experts.

Essential for:

• Directors of housing
• Heads of housing
• Housing management teams
• Tenancy management
• Fraud teams.

10:30am Chair’s welcome and introduction

• Chloe Fletcher, Director, HQN

10:40am What is tenancy fraud – the legal issues

• Katrina Robinson MBE, Legal Director, Birketts & Chair, Tenancy Fraud Form

Katrina Robinson MBE will set the scene, outlining what tenancy fraud covers, the current legislation and how to use it, common legal issues that arise during investigating and prosecuting cases and recent court cases of interest.   She will discuss the regulatory requirements on fraud and the work the Tenancy Fraud Forum have been doing to raise the importance of the issue with the RSH.  She will cover both the basics to help those new to the role but also the more complex legal issues that can arise during tenancy fraud cases and how to best prepare your case.

11:15am A moral imperative to help in the housing crisis

• Jessie Napier, RBK&C

Jessie Napier from Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea will discuss the moral imperative we have as social housing landlords to tackle tenancy fraud, outline Kensington and Chelsea’s successful strategy and the practical tools they use to detect and prosecute tenancy fraud.  She will cover issues that councils in particular, need to consider as well as top tips for all social landlords looking to up their game in this area.

11:50am Break

12:05pm Fighting successful cases – a housing association perspective

• Aisha Akhtar, Head of Legal, Sovereign Network Homes

• Dillon Darbar, Counter Fraud Manager, Sovereign Network Homes

Aisha Akhtar and Dillon Darbar from SNG will highlight the social and regulatory reasons that housing associations need to take tenancy fraud seriously and tackle it proactively.  They will outline SNG’s successful strategy and the practical tools they use to detect and prosecute tenancy fraud.  They will cover issues that housing associations in particular need to consider as well as top tips for all social landlords looking to up their game in this area.

12:40pm Panel discussion and top tips

1:15pm Close

Chloe Fletcher, Director, HQN

Chloe has worked in the social housing sector for over 25 years since her first role in housing management with JSS Pinnacle as a trainee housing officer. She completed a Masters in Housing with Professional Qualification at the London School of Economics in 1998 and then moved into housing policy, working on behalf of the London boroughs, initially for London Housing Unit and then London Councils. She joined the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) in 2007 working with members, government officials and wider housing stakeholders to develop NFA policy and support the ALMO movement.  She has recently left her role as Policy Director at the NFA and joined HQN as Director, working across the business and bringing her knowledge and experience to the wider sector.

Aisha Akhtar, Head of Legal, Sovereign Network Homes

Aisha Akhtar qualified as a lawyer in 2009 having taken a keen interest in social housing. She has worked in Local Government, Housing Associations and in private practice. She joined SNG in October 2017 as their in-house legal expert. She is now Head of legal services and manages the in-house team.

She is currently a Board member at Ekaya Housing in South London and a committee member of the Law Society’s Housing Law committee.

She has delivered training sessions throughout the country on various topics including, disrepair, ASB, Succession, tenancy fraud throughout her career. She regularly delivers both public and tailor made in-house training to various HAs and LAs.

Aisha enjoys delivering training and empowering people, she makes the sessions interactive so there is an exchange of ideas so delegates leave feeling confident in implementing positive change.

Dillon Darbar

Dillon has over 18 years’ experience within the fraud sector including Local and Central Government, and has been a member of the Tenancy Fraud Forum Executive Committee since March 2022.

For the last 6 years, Dillon has been at SNG, where he is currently the Counter Fraud Manager. Covering all aspects of fraud against the business including tenancy fraud, he ensures that all available action is taken against fraudsters so that properties are recovered successfully for those in genuine need. Dillon has played a key part in implementing SNG’s Tenancy Fraud Strategy by taking a proactive approach to tackling tenancy fraud recovering 80 properties and obtaining over £240,000 in Unlawful Profit Orders since joining the business.

Jessie Napier, RBKC

Jessie has worked in housing fraud for many years and is instrumental in helping to improve detection within all social housing sectors. She is a committee member at the Tenancy Fraud Forum which is a not for profit organisation which shares best practice in tenancy fraud. She has a sound knowledge of housing law and is very passionate about recovering properties for those in need. She currently manages a team of housing investigators but was a housing officer and a housing investigator previously.  With such a high demand for social housing, tenancy fraud has never been such an important issue to tackle.

Katrina Robinson MBE, Legal Director, Birketts & Chair, Tenancy Fraud Form

Katrina has significant in-house experience with local authorities and housing associations where she was the Head of Legal and has previously won the coveted Law Society’s Best In-House Team in the Excellence Awards.

She has 30 years’ experience in all areas of housing management and particularly excels in disrepair, anti-social behaviour, and tenancy fraud.  She is one of the founding members and Chair of the Tenancy Fraud Forum and Co-Chair of the Social Housing Law Association (‘SHLA’).   She was also the past immediate Chair of the Law Society’s LGBT+ Division.  Clients have referred to her as ‘a force to be reckoned with’ and ‘frank but warm’.  Katrina’s training sessions are practical and fun with client feedback including ‘finally legal training that makes sense!’.

Katrina obtained the second and third highest Unlawful Profit Orders in the country with awards of £158k and £132k.  She was the instructing solicitor for SHLA who intervened in the case of Churchill -v- Merthyr Tydfil regarding the issue of whether mediation can be compelled.

Katrina was the Independent Adjudicator for Grenfell. She was awarded a MBE in 2017 for Services to Social Housing.

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