Is this fraud, or allowed?

[AndSoFinally]

Apologies for the double thread, but no answers on the previous one

If you were to get a place at university 2 hours away, and enrol your 7 year old DS at the primary school near uni, could you keep your council house back home provided you continued to pay the rent? You would be returning there for all school holidays, and may leave an adult child in the property while you are away.

Would this be fraudulent?

I don’t think so, no.

Yes it is. Your council property needs to be your primary residence. Even if you returned in the school holidays it wouldn’t be your primary residence.

I would check with you tenancy agreement but I wouldn’t think this would be allowed. The council would not want a property to be ‘empty’ for that amount of time.

Could the adult child take on the tenancy?

Pretty sure that if YOU do not occupy the property for 28 days or it may be 30, then they have the right to remove the tenancy.
( obiv hospital stays are different rules )

so no round the world trip upon winning the lottery !

it makes sense, if you aren't there for 28 or 30 days then you don't need the property as clearly living elsewhere, and there are 10000's on waiting lists up and down the country.

p.s. a neighbour will ' tell ' on you anyway.

Mumsnet is really not the place to get legal advice, particularly not on a chat thread.

Your council house needs to be your ‘sole or principal residence’ and there is a lot of case law around this. Basically if you are away at university and intend to return when you have finished your course, especially if you leave a family member in situ and return for the holidays the property will continue to be your principal home. The Council would need to get a Court order to repossess and would need to prove that you have permanently moved out without an intention to return. If you get Housing Benefit/HEUC you won’t usually get it whilst you are away if you are gone for longer than four weeks at a time.

There have been cases in the past where tenants have moved all their furniture out and stayed away for considerable periods of time and just moved back when the council started possession action. Courts have found in the tenant’s favour in these circumstances.

Is there not a uni closer you could get into?

You can’t apply for a school place anyway away from your main residence (ie. Where you pay council tax) so how would this work anyway?or are you planning to live part time at a relatives house?

Talk to Shelter/your housing team, you may be able to add your adult child to the tenancy or they may be able to take over the tenancy for a set period (a very long time ago I knew someone who did this when their dad went to prison, but I can't remember exactly how it was done).

It was allowed with my council flat (Haringey council) in 2016. I got advice from Shelter and my uni advice service and had it confirmed by the council. I always returned to my flat during uni holidays and a few weekends, and kept all furniture and bills there. After my course ended in 2019 I lived there continuously, and I bought it under rtb in 2022.

Thanks for the advice everyone.