The Trainer: February 2018

January 19, 2018

Setting House Rules on Extended Absences and Abandonment

In this month’s feature, we discussed how to deal with households that seem to disappear for weeks at a time, or who seem to have abandoned their unit. When a unit is left unattended, health and safety hazards such as rotting food or frozen pipes can result. Plus, HUD frowns on wasted assistance if an assisted unit isn’t occupied. These unexplained absences can be frustrating—and may even violate HUD lease provisions that require assisted households to use their units as their primary residence.

Setting House Rules on Extended Absences and Abandonment

In this month’s feature, we discussed how to deal with households that seem to disappear for weeks at a time, or who seem to have abandoned their unit. When a unit is left unattended, health and safety hazards such as rotting food or frozen pipes can result. Plus, HUD frowns on wasted assistance if an assisted unit isn’t occupied. These unexplained absences can be frustrating—and may even violate HUD lease provisions that require assisted households to use their units as their primary residence. But you can’t simply clean out these units and re-rent them, because returning households could sue you for illegally evicting them. We explained how to avoid these problems by setting a house rule that requires households to notify you when they’ll be absent from the unit for an extended period of time and explains what constitutes “abandonment.”

QUESTION #1

According to HUD, households lose their tenancy rights if they’re absent longer than 30 days. True or false?

a. True.

b. False.

QUESTION #2

You can make an exception to your policy limiting extended absences if the resident is absent for medical reasons.

a. True.

b. False.

QUESTION #3

You’ve sent a notice to a household informing them that you suspect they’ve abandoned their unit, and that if you don’t hear from them within 15 days, you’ll take action to evict them. If they don’t respond within 15 days, you can dispose of their property immediately. True or false?

a. True.

b. False.

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ANSWERS & EXPLANATIONS

QUESTION #1

Correct answer: b

False. You can set limits on the length of extended absences and tell households that they can lose their tenancy rights if they’re absent longer than those limits allow. The handbook suggests 60 days’ continuous absence as a reasonable limit.

QUESTION #2

Correct answer: a

True. The handbook suggests allowing an absence of 180 days if the absence is for medical reasons. It also says you may allow exceptions for “extenuating circumstances,” but doesn’t say what those circumstances might be [HUD Handbook 4350.3, par. 6-9(B)(2)(b)(2)].

 

QUESTION #3

Correct answer: b

False. Your state or local law will most likely govern how long you must wait until you can dispose of a household’s property. In most cases, you’ll have to store the property for at least a few weeks after getting an eviction order.

HUD’s guidelines say your house rules must describe how you’ll handle and dispose of the household’s possessions left in the unit [HUD Handbook 4350.3, par. 6-9(B)(2)(b)(3)]. It’s smart to do this anyway, in case missing households return to the site and demand their property. If any of the property is lost or damaged, a household could sue you and ask a court to order you to pay the full value of the property. You can protect yourself by taking the right steps and telling households ahead of time what you’ll do to secure and then dispose of abandoned property.

 

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