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On Saturday, N-VA is calling for the introduction of a ‘PV with special evidentiary value’ for domicile fraud in social housing. “With such an official report with special evidentiary value, we give the police an extra tool to catch those who wrongly rent social housing. He or she will then have to demonstrate that he or she does not commit domicile fraud,” says Flemish MP Jeroen Tiebout.
Anyone renting social housing must be domiciled at that address and must also have their main residence there. This is stated in the Flemish Codex Living. However, not everyone adheres to this. Last year, an investigation was started into 724 people suspected of fraud. Just under half of those tenants (339) actually turned out to have committed fraud. In 2020-2021, 160 people lived unjustly in social housing.
“This usually concerns tenants who have moved to live with their partner at another location, but do not report this and keep their social housing. But there are also more people living in social housing than indicated,” says Tiebout. “In this way, people avoid a higher monthly rent, they continue to enjoy a living wage as a single person, they are entitled to various allowances, etc.”
The N-VA parliamentarian proposes, by analogy with a police report for a traffic violation, to introduce the ‘official report with special burden of proof’ for domicile fraud in social housing. These reports have an evidentiary value until proven otherwise. In concrete terms, this means that the judge must rely on what is established by the local police and that the suspect must prove the opposite. This can be done, for example, on the basis of energy invoices, magazine subscriptions and repair invoices, “something that is now the task of the police, but is very cumbersome and time-consuming,” says Tiebout.
“In this way, we provide the local police with an additional tool to tackle domicile fraud in social housing,” said the Flemish Member of Parliament. “With this report with a special burden of proof, we increase confidence in the local police, who often know very well who is committing domicile fraud, but who lack the correct, efficient resources to effectively determine this.”