Having a well-maintained laundry room at one's site is a definite plus for owners and households. Owners can benefit from ancillary income, and households don't have to find off-site laundromats, where they may have to spend hours waiting for machines. But a laundry room can quickly turn...
As HUD's largest rental assistance program, the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program plays a key role in preventing homelessness and supporting local rental markets—particularly in a bad economy. Over the past three years, the country has struggled with persistently high...
Many Section 8 sites need to be refinanced, and their owners often include the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program as part of the sites' new financial structure. But once an owner receives an allocation of tax credits for a Section 8 site, the site manager must approve only those...
Many site managers don't know how to handle applications from households headed by minors or including minor co-heads or spouses. By definition, a minor is an individual under the age of full legal responsibility. Therefore, a minor's signature on a lease is generally not legally binding...
On July 29, HUD posted Notice PIH 2011-44 entitled “Guidance on EPA's Lead-Based Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule, HUD's Lead Safe Housing Rule, and the EPA-HUD Lead Disclosure Rule.” The notice provides guidance to public housing authorities (PHAs) and...
Households often report changes in their composition, employment status, income, or allowances. As a result of such changes, a household may have to move to a smaller or larger unit or pay a higher or lower share of the rent. To determine what effect the reported changes will have on the...
The federal Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 requires users of consumer reports, beginning on July 21, 2011, to also provide credit scores to applicants if the score was used in taking adverse or unfavorable action against the applicant. Adverse action notices...
If you think your local tax assessor may have overvalued your site, it may be a good idea to hire a company that specializes in appealing real estate tax assessments. While you can take basic steps on your own to check the fairness of a tax assessment, you'll need a tax appeal specialist to...
Most apartment residents are not home during the day to accept packages sent to them. That's why many sites accept packages for their residents and hold them until the residents come to pick them up. But if you do not control package deliveries and pickups, you could run into trouble, says...
Most managers find it easy to calculate the allowance for child-care expenses when the care allows the only adult member of the household to work. The child-care expenses are simply deducted from household income up to the amount of the member's earned income. But calculating the allowance...
Since 1996, 16 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws that allow certain medical uses of marijuana despite the federal prohibition against its use. In May 2011, Delaware became the most recent state to pass medical marijuana legislation. Under Delaware's law, qualifying...
