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...
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...
When you sign a lease with a new household, you must process certain documents. In some cases, this means that both you and household must sign the documents. In other cases, it simply involves giving the documents to the households. If you forget to give a document to a household or process a...
As a manager, you have a fiduciary—that is, legal—responsibility to the property owner to ensure that tenant rent is accurately calculated and that residents are given appropriate notice of an increase in their portion of the rent, while...
Screening applicants is becoming increasingly important for assisted sites. And visiting an applicant's home is an effective way to identify bad applicants. It can also help you get a head start in working with those applicants you ultimately decide to accept. At the Residences at Ninth...
To determine whether a household is eligible to live at your assisted site and how much assistance it should get, you must count income that the household “expects to receive” during its 12-month certification year [HUD Handbook 4350.3, par. 5-5(A)]. This includes amounts household...
During an inspection, Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) inspectors look at specific areas of the site for health and safety hazards. Most of these hazards can cost you points on your inspection score but don't necessarily subject you to other, more serious penalties.
Federal laws require employers—including apartment building owners and management companies—to post signs explaining legal information to their employees. Failure to post the signs can cost as much as $10,000 per violation. Fortunately, compliance is easy. The signs are available...
Files on households can take up a lot of space. After a few years, you may be tempted to throw out some of these files, which contain documents relating to former and current households as well as to applicants who were rejected or withdrew their applications. If you're not careful, you...
Four years ago, the Insider launched a new monthly feature: The Trainer. Since then, the Trainer has asked—and answered—questions based on topics raised in each issue’s compliance articles. Whether you’re a long-time subscriber or a new one, you can test your...
All site owners at one time or another must take the unpleasant step of evicting a resident. You may have to evict a resident for one of a number of lease violations, such as nonpayment of rent, excessive noise, or criminal activity. Whatever your grounds for eviction, you want to do everything...
Methamphetamine (meth) use has crept up the social ladder and now can be found at all social strata. The meth problem is pervasive. Meth-making operations have been uncovered in all 50 states. And according to a nationwide survey of 500 law-enforcement agencies in 45 states by the National...
