A council worker has received a reprimand for letting out of their council home after advertising on the Airbnb online lettings platform.
The letting breached the terms of the employee’s tenancy agreement, with the council sending a “letter of expectation” to the staff member after an investigation.
Council tenants are not permitted to sub-let their homes – even as a holiday let while they are away themselves.
Conservative councillor Anne Meadows told a meeting at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Tuesday 27 June) that the issue reflected local concerns about the growing number of holiday lets in Brighton and Hove.
Councillor Meadows, who used to chair the council’s Housing Committee, said: “You start questioning … Does that individual need the council property? Or why wasn’t the property removed from them?
“Given the concerns raised about Airbnb in Brighton and Hove at Housing Committee, I start to question those sorts of things.
“That property could have been given to someone who needs it full-time. Instead, a ‘letter of expectation’ was written.”
Councillor Meadows was told that the member of staff still lived at the property and had let out their home through Airbnb while they were away.
Counter fraud manager Simon White said: “It was clear they hadn’t really realised what they were supposed to be doing. That’s why it was a case of standard-setting.”
Brighton and Hove City Council’s Audit and Standards Committee was told that the listing had since been removed from the Airbnb website.
Details of the case were revealed as councillors discussed the council’s counter-fraud annual report for 2022-23.
Mr White said that people improperly sub-letting council homes as holiday lets was a national issue.
He said that councils across the country were working with the various listings websites such as Airbnb to gather data to tackled the problem.
The counter-fraud report also said that a school’s “purchase card” had been used fraudulently, with suspicious transactions having been flagged during checks.
The card turned out to have been cloned. The school was not identified in the report but was working with its bank to identify the fraudulent transactions and recover its losses.
Counter fraud manager Simon White said: “It was clear they hadn’t really realised what they were supposed to be doing. That’s why it was a case of standard-setting.” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The council should just email every council occupant and let them know the standard and just evict them when the data is released from AirBnB later this year that proves this is going on council properties.
Data is already freely accessible, to be fair. Some 4,500 active rental properties last month.
It isn’t. Only adverts with no addresses many of which are duplicated. Later this year the actual names and addresses are being released. Mortgage companies, landlords etc will be able to check up on this freely.
Its in the tenancy agreement! No eviction? No job loss?
Indeed. Since when was not knowing what the terms of the tenancy agreement which a tenant signed a defence for? Clearly a case of the council looking after their own. Similar to how the council exempt themselves from housing regulations that everryone else as to follow ‘or else’.
There clearly is a lack of pro activeness in holding tenants to account. Didn’t know they couldn’t rent out a council home as an airBNB in a seaside town. Is amusing. Suspect watched loads of others do it whilst still on Housing Benefit and thought why not. If caught play dumb and you will be let off.
I know few council tenants do , some going away with their caravans having luxury life style.
this is going on some times ago. Council just ignored when neighbours complained.