Is my neighbour commiting benefit fraud?

paddedjohn

If they are just overoccupying and not subletting (might all be related) then they could be doing the council a favour by not asking for any more properties. If its only the noise bothering you then go and have a word with them, they may not realise.

Haywire7

If other people are occupying the house and not just visiting for short periods, they will be expected to be contributing towards rent and therefore if housing benefit is in payment it should be reduced. The amount the other occupants are expected to contribute is dependant on the amount of their income/benefits. If one of the other occupants is her partner then obviously she should not be claiming benefits as a single person. I am sure the DWP and council would be interested and want to investigate.

kazzah60

as I read this post and reply - I am currently listening and being subjected to 9 latvian men having a massive physical fight going from the front ouf the house next door to me to the back garden and back

they have been drinking since 11 am and the two little girls who live in the house have been running riot until the fight started - now they are screaming upstairs

the house is a normal three bedroomed house - two decent sized rooms and one very tiny box room- and yet there seems to be a "couple" and their two children living there along with 4 other adult males

they have no boundaries as regards noise nuisance and our council has so overburdened with complaints about noise nuisance, they can seldom attend when you phone them - and by the tiem they can attend inevitable things have calmed down.

so i do have some sympathies with the OP - I too find it odd that a small family home can house so many people.
Karen

Wellery82

I don't mean to have a personal dig but i don't understand why the need to go running off and causing problems for other people.

If the noise is an issue then maybe have a chat with them, explain how it is affecting you, chances are they will be oblivious to it and that will help things. Getting the council involved will only put their backs up.

Regarding extra people in the house, well my view is if they are happy and it isn't affecting you, then why the concern

gillypkk

my council wont do anything about noise unless its been reported to the police. keep a note of the noise times etc... and cann the police when its really bad then in the morning call the council.

my next door neighbours have 5 or 6 grown adults in a 2 bed house. it couldbe more but there are somany people coming and going at all times of the day and night its difficult to know who actually stays there! but its a private let so the council are even more restricted as to what they can do.

if she is claiming benefits and sub-letting then its got to be reported coz it is fraud. if you report the noise the council should come out and then they will find out about the overcrowding themselves.

adindas

I think this is a good point here. But you will never know before the authority investigates on this issue. Initiation is about someone need to tip them off.

Anyway I love your dog, it looks so cute ..

passatrider wrote: »

Ok, two things here:

If she's a council tenant living in a one bed flat then she's clearly over-occupying the property. This would be seen as a breach of tenancy agreement. If she's charging them rent even worse as this is seen as sub-letting - also a breach of tenancy.

As for the noise then you will have to keep a diary of all the incidents that occur and contact your local council about this issue. If it's really bad then you could call the police but this all depends what the noise is.

I guess it's your call at the end of the day if this woman is really making your life a misery.

ceridwen

Another vote here for reporting her to the Council.

I wouldnt mention her nationality if I were you - as that will be deemed to be irrelevant at best and racist at worst.

What you DO mention is:
- she seems to be sub-letting
- the overcrowding
- the noise issue
- is she paying the correct rate of Council Tax? (ie not claiming the single person discount)
- is she paying tax to HMRC on any rental income she is charging these lodgers?

She is in the wrong on all three counts and you are perfectly entitled to get her slung out basically. It DOES put extra pressure on an area if too many people are trying to live in it and one is entitled to know that a next door flat that is only one bedroom only has one or two people living in it (ie not that many).

Start keeping a record of the noise - date, time, what type of noise, effect on you and tell the Environmental Health Dept.

Check out how many people are living there - eg a record of when those beds turned up/a record of the "comings and goings"/whatever else will help prove that its overcrowded and tell that Council Dept.

Keep any proof of sub-letting you can get - and tell that Council Dept.

She may well still be claiming the single person Council Tax discount and that would be wrong in the circumstances - so she needs reporting to the C.T. Department about that.

By the time you've done this - you might have got as many as 4 separate Council Departments on to her.

Also tell your local Councillor and ask their advice as to actions to take on this.

Also tell HMRC - as you suspect that she may be making rental income that she is not declaring.

By the time you are through - then maybe she will move out herself in order to avoid all the hassle from the various official "bodies" or at least confine herself to the correct number of people living there (ie that 1 or 2).

*********************

Personally - in your position I would buy a cheap A4 page household diary for all things concerned with your home. That will be a good place for you to keep a record of events until this is sorted out, eg:
Monday, 4pm - contacted Councillor x and said...
Tuesday, 6pm - saw 6 different people coming in and no-one appeared to leave for the night
Wednesday, 10am - sent letter to HMRC stating that there is a possible case for investigation re undeclared income.

***************

A factor that has to be borne in mind in this is that if people are able to get away with sub-letting/overcrowding/etc/etc - then they will tell their friends and the friends are likely to copy them and then someone else somewhere else gets the same problem and that householder gets copied and so it goes on ad infinitum.......= end result is lots of people have problems with problem households like this next door.

Edinburghlass_2

MoneySaverForever wrote: »

I'm not saying I'd report her, just want to know if she's committing any sort of fraud I don't see how it can be legal to have so many people in one small council flat. My only complaint is the noise, very overwhelming at times. Thank you xxx

How do you know these people are actually staying in the house? I think you need to consider carefully the use of the word fraud, fraud doing what?

Complain to the police about the noise but you have absolutely no idea how many people are staying in the house or if they are actually living there?

And please don't go reporting anyone to the council re benefits just because you believe someone isn't working when you have no idea if they are claiming benefits or reporting someone to HMRC regarding tax on alleged lodgers?

ceridwen

The number of beds moved in would seem to be a pretty good indicator of other people living there too.

There are usually other indicators when a property is overcrowded - eg the huge number of sacks of rubbish that go out on dustbin day (which is, in fact, one of the ways that we all know round my way that a property is very overcrowded - a 3 bedroom house doesnt produce a good 10-12 sacks of rubbish each time unless its over-crowded).

MoneySaverForever

diable wrote: »

If she was English would you think about reporting her?

Yes, if I had reason to believe she was commiting fraud then I wouldn't think twice about it. What difference does nationality make? crime is still crime xxx