Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing joins forces with Coactiva to crack-down on tenancy fraud

Social housing expert Coactiva, part of the Callcredit Information Group, has partnered with Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing Ltd to help tackle social housing tenancy fraud. 

Coactiva’s ThreeSixty Online solution will be used by Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing to investigate individuals that are suspected of subletting their home, providing false information at the point of application or not using their social housing address as their main place of residence. 

Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing is an arms-length management organisation (ALMO) formed in 2013 and manages 4,200 social homes owned by Shropshire Council, spread across the Bridgnorth and Oswestry areas of the county.  The organisation will also use ThreeSixty Online to minimise rent arrears by tracing ‘gone-away’ former tenant debtors and then determine the most effective course of debt recovery action required. 

Martin Whitelegg, Bridgnorth Senior Neighbourhood Officer for Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing said: “We take a zero-tolerance approach to tenancy fraud and we are keen to use all available tools to help ensure that our homes are only allocated to those who are eligible. 

“ThreeSixty Online has allowed us to identify and take action against the minority of our tenants that commit fraud by providing false information at the point of application or failing to use our property as their main place of residence.” 

Joanne Cosgrove, Oswestry Senior Neighbourhoods Officer at Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing’s (Oswestry site) said: “We have only been using ThreeSixty Online for a short time; however, two would-be tenancy fraudsters have already been stopped in their tracks with the help of Coactiva.  In one of these cases the prospective tenant owned another property and had not declared this during the application process. 

“The system provides us with access to previously unseen intelligence but is easy to use and highly cost effective.” 

Andrew Davis, Director of Public sector, Coactiva said “Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing’s success in tackling tenancy fraud in partnership with Coactiva is helping to dispel the myth that social housing tenancy fraud occurs only in densely populated urban locations. 

“Coactiva is delighted that Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing has become the latest organisation in the West Midlands to be using our powerful tools to stop fraudsters and help protect the public purse.”