Industry News
Mega repayment order follows flat’s 12 year illegal subletting
A woman has been ordered to repay more than £155,000 by a court after she was found guilty of illegally letting a housing association flat in south east London for more than 12 years. Adejoke Patience Ologe let out the two-
bedroom flat in Camberwell, which she rented from Riverside housing association. Ms Ologe had not lived in the flat since at least 2008 and was renting it to two women and their children.
The illegal arrangement sublet was discovered by Oxford City Council’s counter-fraud team, which investigates suspected cases of tenancy fraud on behalf of Riverside.
At Clerkenwell and Shoreditch
County Court a judge granted Riverside possession of the property. The judge also made an Unlawful Profit Order in the sum of £145,178 together with a demand that Ms Ologe repay £3,000 of rent arrears and £9,955 of legal costs. The amount was based on the belief that
Ms Ologe had received £216,000 over the 12- year period. A spokesperson for Oxford Council said they believed the Unlawful Profit Order was the second largest of its kind ever issued in the UK. Patrick New, executive director of customer
service at Riverside, said: “This was a blatant, dishonest fraud. With social housing in huge demand, it’s vital we pursue such cases in order to make properties available to families and individuals who will act honestly and deserve them.” Scott Warner, counter-fraud manager at
Oxford City Council, said: “This is a landmark case that really demonstrates the value of our partnership working approach with Riverside. Social housing fraud is often seen as a hidden crime but the effect is felt far and wide. He added: “With the demand for social
housing, unlawfully subletting a property means a deserving family are unable to occupy a home and may need to reside in expensive, unsuitable temporary accommodation for longer than is necessary.”
Huge demand for household adaptations revealed
their home, according to the latest English Homes Survey findings. In 2019/20, 8 per cent of all households
A
in England (1.9 million) had at least one person with a long-standing physical or mental health condition and said that they required adaptations to their home. This has not changed since 2014/15. Most households that required adaptations felt
their home was suitable for their needs. In 2019/20, 81 per cent of households that
required adaptations to their home due to their health condition felt their home was suitable for their needs. The 19 per cent of households (374,000) that required adaptations and who considered their accommodation unsuitable accounted for 2 per cent of all households in England. This has not changed since 2014/15. Younger people were more likely than older
people to report that their accommodation was unsuitable for their needs and were more likely to want to move to more suitable accommodation. Households with a person aged under 55 that
required adaptations were more likely to report that their accommodation was unsuitable (30 per cent) than those that required adaptations in older age groups (20 per cent or less). Households with a person aged 75 or over that required adaptations were least likely to state their accommodation was unsuitable (13 per cent). Overall, 17 per cent of households with
someone under 55 that required adaptations wanted to move to more suitable accommodation compared with 12 per cent of households with someone aged 55 to 64 years and 7 per cent or less for those aged 65 or over.
HIGH LEVELS OF UNSUITABLE PROPERTIES Owner-occupiers who required adaptations were less likely to say that their home was unsuitable for their needs. In 2019/20, 17 per cent of owner-occupiers that
required adaptations reported that their accommodation was unsuitable for their needs. By comparison, 25 per cent of private renters, 25 per cent of local authority renters and 21 per cent of housing association renters that required adaptations said that their home was unsuitable for their needs. The most common adaptation needed inside
the home was hand or grab rails in the kitchen or bathroom. In total, 42 per cent of households that required adaptations reported that they needed a hand or
8 | HMM August/September 2021 |
www.housingmmonline.co.uk
The 19 per cent of households (374,000) that required adaptations and who considered their accommodation unsuitable accounted for 2 per cent of all households in England
grab rail in their kitchen or bathroom, representing around 819,000 households. The number of households that reported that
they did not have all the adaptations that they needed has increased. In 2019/20, 47 per cent of households that
required adaptations had all the adaptations they needed in their home. Consequently, 53 per cent (1 million) of households did not have all the adaptations that they needed, an increase since 2014/15 when 45 per cent (864,000) of households that required adaptations lacked one or more of the adaptations they needed. Middle-income households were most likely to
not have all the adaptations they needed. In 2019/20, 63 per cent of households in the
middle income quintile did not have all the adaptations that they needed. By comparison, 51 per cent of households in the lowest income quintile and 52 per cent of households in the highest income quintile reported that they not have all the adaptations they needed.
round 1.9 million households in England had one or more people with a health condition that required adaptations to
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68