Recent Court Rulings

Lack of Comparability Studies Doesn't Bar Rent Hikes

February 1, 2010    

Facts: The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) subsidized the rents under HAP contracts between HUD and the owners of two Section 8 sites: Greenleaf Apartments and Sandburg Village Apartments. Both the Greenleaf and the Sandburg contracts establish rent amounts that obligate...

PHA Didn't Properly Consult Site During Management Selection Process

February 1, 2010    

Facts: In February 2009, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) initiated a nationwide request-for-proposal (RFP) to reduce the cost of management at Horner Housing Development by reducing the number of property management firms involved in the management of the complex.

Housing Authority May Have “Constructively Discharged” Manager

December 28, 2009    

Facts: In 1990, after two years as property manager, an African-American employee of the St. Clair Housing Authority informed his supervisor that he had an interest in the position of director of property management. The supervisor selected a white man for the position, and the property...

Housing Authority Maintenance Check Didn't Violate Fourth Amendment

December 28, 2009    

Facts: In February 2007, a sewer backed up in Wheatland Homes, a public housing complex managed by the North Newton Housing Authority. The complex's executive director met with maintenance personnel and asked whether any of the other units in the fourplex had been checked for damage....

Owner Didn't Make Reasonable Accommodation

November 20, 2009    

Facts: A resident who was living on the third floor of a building that did not have an elevator gave the site manager a note from her physician, requesting that she be moved to any available first-floor unit because her physical condition prevented her from engaging in strenuous activity...

Minor Property Damage Insufficient Grounds for Lease Termination

November 20, 2009    

Facts: As a result of conditions found at an annual unit inspection, the site owner terminated a resident's lease. At a formal grievance hearing in February 2009, the hearing officer supported the owner's decision to terminate the lease as a result of several lease violations,...

Would Accommodation of Disabled Resident Be Reasonable, Prevent Eviction?

October 25, 2009    

Facts: The Boston Housing Authority (BHA) undertook the eviction of a resident who assaulted his twin brother on public housing development grounds, claiming that he constituted a threat to the safety of other tenants. The resident, in turn, claimed that he had a mental disability and...

Resident Not Automatically Entitled to Grievance Hearing

October 25, 2009    

Facts: The New York City Housing Authority took action to terminate the tenancy of a resident for being chronically late in paying rent. The resident claimed that the housing authority improperly denied him a grievance hearing to contest its actions to evict him. The housing authority...

Owner Can't Evict Residents Because It Wants to Raise Rent

October 25, 2009    

Facts: Morton LLC, a residential property owner subject to the Los Angeles Rent Stabilization Ordinance (LARSO), served notices of eviction on residents because it wanted to raise the rent on units on its housing property.

Court Upholds Lease Termination for Marijuana Possession

September 22, 2009    

Facts: In April 2007, a resident signed a lease with Garden View, a nonprofit organization that provides subsidized housing for individuals living with HIV/AIDS and their families in Chicago. Garden View's property manager reviewed the lease provisions, including the prohibition...

Site Didn't Discriminate Against Manager

September 22, 2009    

Facts: In late 2004, a site manager with 13 years' experience overseeing low- to middle-income housing at Southside in Brooklyn, N.Y., took a one-month personal leave to care for her sister. While she was away on leave, Southside's housing director issued a memorandum admonishing...

Owner Falsely Certified Lead Paint Cleanup

August 23, 2009    

Facts: In April 2007, a lead inspector from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development of the City of New York (HPD) visited a unit in a residential building on West 157th Street and found nine lead-paint violations. Under the city's lead-based paint law, the presence of...