Recent Court Rulings
February 15, 2013
Facts: A former resident sued the local housing authority for allegedly violating her due process rights when they terminated her Section 8 voucher. The voucher paid all of the resident’s $875 monthly rent. In her termination letter, the housing authority stated that she failed to submit her...
The Trainer
February 15, 2013
DEALING WITH MOLD PROBLEMS; HIRING A SOCIAL SERVICE COORDINATOR
In this month’s feature, we discussed how to get rid of mold at your site, whether it’s due to a moist environment caused by a natural disaster or by faulty plumbing. You need to know when your maintenance staff can handle...
Feature
January 15, 2013
When households move out of a unit, they may leave behind damage that’s expensive to repair. For example, a household may damage the carpeting so badly, it must all be replaced. Although you can deduct this cost from the household’s security deposit, the security deposit may not be big...
Dealing with Households
January 15, 2013
If your site has an elevator, it’s important that your staff know the proper steps to take when a passenger-filled elevator breaks down. If your staff doesn’t take the proper steps and passengers get injured during the breakdown, you could get sued, warns risk management consultant Rose...
Certification
January 15, 2013
Sometimes a household will alert your management office that it now qualifies as elderly. For example, the head of the household may have reached age 62 and the household now wants the additional allowances that elderly households are entitled to. Such requests may take some managers by surprise,...
Recent Court Rulings
January 15, 2013
Facts: A PHA resident lived in a unit with her three daughters. Before traveling abroad, she gave her adult son a key "to check on the apartment." While the resident was away, firefighters entered her unit and found a dog tied to a radiator near a stove, which had all four burner knobs on...
Recent Court Rulings
January 15, 2013
Facts: An applicant sued a local PHA for denying her application for low-income housing. The PHA had denied the application due to her prior conviction for involuntary manslaughter. Under the PHA’s stated admissions and occupancy policy, an applicant with a conviction for involuntary...
Recent Court Rulings
January 15, 2013
Facts: A project-based Section 8 housing owner entered into an agreement to rent a unit with a resident in April 2009. The agreement, based on the HUD model lease, required the owner, with the resident's cooperation, to conduct a recertification of the resident's household income and...
Recent Court Rulings
January 15, 2013
Facts: An owner sent her Section 8 resident a notice to vacate. In the notice, the owner stated that the lease had been on a month-to-month basis since the end of March 2011. She further stated that she wanted the resident to vacate the unit by the end of November 2011 because she didn’t wish...
Recent Court Rulings
January 15, 2013
Facts: During a resident's tenancy, she lived with several family members until those individuals left the household and she was the sole remaining occupant. Two months before her death, she submitted a permission form to add her two sons to her permanent household. This request was disapproved...
