Domicile fraud versus property fraud: two investigations, two types of evidence

Domicile fraud is stating an incorrect living situation in order to obtain or retain an advantage. The best-known forms:

• a benefit recipient states that they live alone while living with someone, in order to receive the higher amount for single persons;
• a social housing tenant lets someone live with them without reporting it, so that the rent remains too low;
• someone is registered at an address where they do not actually live, for example because they spend most of their time abroad.

The investigation into domicile fraud takes place in Belgium: home visits by the social worker or the tenant support officer, reports from the neighbourhood police officer, water and energy consumption data, reports from neighbours. The evidence is a finding about the actual living situation at a given moment.

Property fraud is concealing real estate in order to obtain an advantage to which one is not entitled given that ownership. For a social housing tenant, this concerns the property ownership condition: anyone who owns a home or building land does not qualify. For a living wage (leefloon) recipient, it concerns the means test: real estate is a resource that counts.

Property in Belgium usually comes to light through the data of the FOD Financiën (FPS Finance). Property fraud therefore in practice mainly involves real estate abroad: an apartment on the coast, an inherited share of a parental home, a piece of agricultural land, in Italy, Morocco, Poland or Türkiye. That property is not recorded in any Belgian register.

The most important difference lies in the evidence. A home visit says nothing about a property abroad, and a land registry extract from abroad says nothing about who sleeps in the social housing unit in Antwerp.

Domicile fraud belongs with the organisation’s own service: the social worker of the OCMW (public centre for social welfare), the tenant support officer of the housing company, the neighbourhood police officer and, where necessary, the supervisory officer or the social inspectorate. It requires local knowledge and presence.

An in-house service cannot investigate property fraud abroad itself. A Belgian official has no access to a foreign land registry and may not carry out investigations there either. This requires an agency that works with lawyers in the country itself, who are competent to consult the registers. Bureaubuitenland België does precisely that: a pre-check of usually 1 to 2 weeks and, if you decide to do so after a positive outcome, a full in-depth investigation with documents and translation. We do not carry out observations or home visits; that is not necessary to demonstrate ownership.

In practice, the two forms often coincide. The typical situation: a tenant or client spends months of the year abroad, in a home that belongs to them. The domicile investigation establishes the absence, but cannot prove where the person concerned does live and why. The property investigation can substantiate that if it turns out that the home abroad is registered in their name. For the living wage (leefloon), specific rules apply: see living wage and stays abroad.

Conversely, an established long-term absence is often the concrete suspicion that justifies a property investigation. It therefore makes sense to put both tracks side by side:

1. In the domicile investigation, establish how often and for how long the person concerned is absent and to which country they travel.
2. On that basis, have a pre-check carried out in that country.
3. Combine the two findings in the case file: absence plus ownership forms a coherent case; the council, the justice of the peace or the labour court assesses what that means.

An example of that combination is the case of De Zonnige Woonst in Hamme, where the housing company first established persistent rumours and long-term stays abroad and then had the ownership investigated. The justice of the peace accepted the evidence in 2019 in that specific case; see the explanation by De Zonnige Woonst.

Sources: Primabook of the POD Maatschappelijke Integratie (PPS Social Integration) (social investigation); Wonen in Vlaanderen (supervision of social housing); VRT NWS, 18 June 2019.