In a recently decided case, a court found that a public housing agency (PHA) couldn’t evict a resident because the PHA didn’t strictly comply with the state’s notice-to-vacate requirements. Under Texas state law, for a tenant under a written lease, the owner must give the...
In a recently decided case, an owner of a HUD-subsidized building failed to evict a resident because the owner’s pre-termination notice wasn’t specific enough. Owners must furnish a proper lease pre-termination notice letting residents know exactly what they did wrong. If the notice...
Facts: An Illinois PHA terminated a resident’s housing assistance for violating a family obligation under the voucher program. The PHA tried to inspect her unit at two different times for an annual inspection. The resident wasn’t present for the two inspections, and...
On Feb. 25, an Eastern District of Texas federal judge ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) national eviction moratorium is unconstitutional. The moratorium was implemented by the...
Facts: Ignoring repeated written warnings, a resident continued to smoke in her Section 8 unit and allow her guests to do likewise. And while the multiple complaints from neighbors about her screaming did little to gain the owner’s affections, the last straw was her arrest...
Facts: An owner claimed that over a course of four years, a Section 8 resident was a major nuisance, harassing the neighbors, stealing packages, making excessive noise, and getting into fights. But all the while it accepted her rent. In November 2018, she was arrested on the...
Facts: A few months after a resident moved into his apartment, his next-door neighbor began a relentless campaign of racial harassment, abuse, and threats. From the start of his neighbor’s several-month campaign of harassment, the resident, “fear[ing] for his...
Facts: Before a resident moved into her unit, a new smoke detector with a new battery was installed. The unit was also inspected by a local PHA inspector who found that the unit had the correct number of smoke detectors and that the smoke detectors were working properly. Shortly...
Facts: After the death of a Section 8 resident, an owner sought to evict a person living in the unit. The occupant claimed succession rights and tried to prove that he lived with the tenant for more than a year before she died from cancer, and that they were involved in an...
Facts: A former Section 8 resident sued the local PHA and an owner for alleged housing discrimination and breach of contract. The resident claimed that after making written promises to transfer the resident to a new unit free of dangerous inhalants, the owner refused to deliver...
