Owner Fraudulently Claimed Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments

HUD reviewed the records of the Housing Authority of the City of Orlando. Specifically, HUD looked at the Section 8 assistance payments made to an owner for a resident with whom he lived. The housing authority discovered potential fraud when the owner brought the death certificate of the resident to the authority to discontinue the housing assistance payments. The resident's last name on the death certificate matched the owner's last name.

     HUD reviewed the landlord authorization agreement for automatic deposit credits, rental leases, marriage and death certificates, and Section 8 housing assistance payments made to the owner from January 2002 through January 2010 by the authority. HUD investigators found that the resident fraudulently received $76,071 in Section 8 housing assistance payments for a resident with whom he lived from about 1998 (and married in June 2002) until 2010.

     HUD then filed a complaint against the owner seeking civil penalties and assessments totaling $137,936. The complaint alleged that the owner made or caused to be made 42 claims to HUD's Section 8 tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher program administered by the authority that he knew or had reason to know were false or fraudulent because he was in violation of the housing assistance payments contract and, therefore, was ineligible for Section 8 housing assistance payments due to his continued residence in the contract unit with the assisted resident. The owner failed to defend the action, and a HUD administrative law judge issued a default judgment and order awarding HUD the full amount sought in the complaint.

• HUD Memorandum No. 2012-CF-1812: Default Judgment Against Section 8 Landlord (9/24/12)