To thiink more needs to be done to stop people accessing council housing who already have overseas homes?

[livinginatravellodge]

I know a person who is a dual national but not has British Nationality. They still have really strong links to their country of origin.
In their home country they have a fully furnished 3 bed apartment that they visit with their children when going home. They also one an apartment which they rent out and the income is kept in a bank account overseas. They also own a prime piece of building land. However, in the UK they live in a council property.

I believe that in most councils you are not allowed council housing if you all ready own property; some councils are more explicit and say in detail that this includes overseas property.

If a person attempted to gain a council property while already owning UK property they could very quickly be found out and be taken to court for housing fraud.

I know of another couple, both from different countries who live in council property in the UK. I am friends with them both on Facebook and every year they go on holiday to their alternate country of origin. Again, they have a property to stay in when they visit their home country. I would think that this situation is more common than we all realise.

I own my own property and have been fortunate enough to never need to live in council property but I find this really unfair.The first person mentioned is not a very nice person in many ways (but that is another matter). I reported him to the council and have provided my name for further information.

I am intrigued to see what the council do but I am anticipating nothing as they may find it too hard to prove.

AIBU to think that more needs to be done to ensure that council housing is not allocated to those that already have an overseas home?

Many refugees have homes in other countries, it’s just that they’ve been bombed or stolen or they aren’t safe to live in because of government persecution, or there’s war and famine or they’re homosexual.

Owning a home doesn’t protect people from every reason that might lead to immigration.

If they come into substantial assets then I think yes, that whilst there is such a shortage of secure tenancy housing, their eligibility for council housing should be reevaluated. That said, I don’t know how you avoid the law of unintended consequences.

But we vote them in and let them rule us for several years sucking the life out of us? Plus we feed a whole family whilst they exempt of certain things like tax.

No, I really don't think they should be able to. If they can afford to, they should home themselves before investing. In an ideal world, there would be many more houses, but there are not. It needs to be for those who cannot afford housing first and foremost.

In our county, you tick a box on the housing application to say you don't own or rent any other property in the uk or abroad then sign the application. This means they are committing fraud if they do have property elsewhere.

Unfortunately, unless someone declares this then it's difficult for councils to find out if the property is not in the uk although they do have housing fraud teams.

Well done for reporting.

Sell aunt Mabel's flat, simple.

But a house in another country may not be a substantial asset (and may have shared ownership or other dependent family members in it), it may be difficult to sell and impossible to work from, it may be in a war zone…. And why is it ok for someone to own say a car or any other asset but not a house?

Ok, it worth £5k and will cost £2k to sell that I don’t have

Hopefully it will be passed. I have seen people with no chance of recovery and no quality suffer and suffer and suffer. I don't want that.

How can anyone say this is reasonable? It’s immoral at best and committing fraud at worst.

It comes out of the £5k.

I think a lot of things need stopping with council housing.
People underoccupying big 3/4 bed homes whilst there are families with kids stuck in high rises with no bedroom is another one

But this is all on the government, they know about the housing crisis, what have any of them attempted to do about it?

Are you from the Daily Mail? This is the type of thing that hardly ever happens that they splash all over their front page to make people hate immigrants more.

Acquaintance got a council house about 20 years ago, high priority due to disability. Had gone bankrupt previously but also has a second home in Madrid. I don’t know how the city council could check though.

I know of 2 people who were subletting council houses. One was a large house with 2 reception rooms and 3 double bedrooms to a single man. Plenty of families in desperate need of housing.

Welcome to MN, OP.

Well the only person i know who does this is a uk citizen, born here. In her 80s. Worked abroad, keeps all her savings abroad and owns property abroad. And lives in a high rise flat in a city centre here from a council association on full benefits. None of the many many migrants I know do anything like this. So no, it isn’t an immigration issue if you ask me.

@Mydietstartstomorrow
@ichundich

"ichundich
YABU"

"Why"

Because this MN and as @CoatRack points out if you raise any question involving migrants, foreigners, other nations, asylum seekers then regardless of the question you are automatically labelled as a far right, racist, fascist, Reform supporting neo Nazi.

To answer the op. No, anyone who owns a property anywhere in the world should not qualify for council housing or HA properties. They can private rent.

Not with my HA - They ask about other property ownership, but they didn’t ask about income or savings.

I agree it shouldn't be happening but I'll be honest, I don't really want a task force costing £££ allocated to it as I can't think it's a huge problem.

I’m a former Housing fraud investigator and would say this depends on the circumstances. I’m assuming the tenant had full uk citizenship.
If the property abroad is rented out it could be classed as a business asset. Council tenants are allowed to run a business. Even if it’s just a holiday home this may not breach the rules. Many tenants own caravans or even apartments abroad. It’s all down to reasonableness.
Is it reasonable to evict the tenant and expect them to move back to the other country. My view is no.
Is it reasonable to expect them to sell the property abroad and use that money to buy a property here. Again I would say no. Council tenants can have savings and investments.
if the tenant lied on application there is a chance of successfully evicting
If the tenant derives any income from the property and receives benefit without declaring it there may be benefit fraud
I think only if the council policy specifically included a clause that you cannot own property abroad they could legally evict. This I think is the legal position. I’m not making a judgement on the morality of it

They do exist, and my best friend pays just over a quarter of the rent for a council house in the same street as my private let, and I’m paying under market value tbf.

I suspect numbers are very few. A lot Iess than those with second homes in the UK or holiday lets that could be full time homes for someone, rented out or owned.

Aside from those where there has been war, famine or other conflict, I expect many may not have a functioning admin you could exchange details with, or who would co-operate.