What Happened: A landlord sent an eviction notice to a Section 8 resident for not reporting his full household income. Specifically, the landlord claimed that the resident had self-completed Employment Verification forms during previous periodic certifications indicating that he was a driver for RUS Transportation without disclosing that he was also one of the company’s owners. A three-judge panel gave the green light for eviction, finding that the resident materially breached the lease by knowingly withholding information in an intentional effort to mislead the landlord. So, the resident appealed.

Ruling: The Delaware court upheld the lower court’s ruling.

Reasoning: The eviction was invalid because the landlord didn’t prove that I committed fraud under state law, the resident argued. But the court wasn’t swayed. In Delaware, as in many states, in a case involving a federally subsidized housing unit, federal law controls in the event of any conflict between state landlord-tenant law and federal law. And federal laws in this case—that is, HUD regulations—give landlords the right to terminate a lease on the grounds of “a tenant’s material noncompliance with the rental agreement,” defined as including a tenant’s failure “to supply on time all required information on the income and composition, or eligibility factors, of the tenant household” or “knowingly providing incomplete or inaccurate information as required under these provisions.” Result: The landlord didn’t have to show the resident committed fraud under Delaware law. 

• Rahim v. Just. of the Peace Ct. No. 13, 2025 Del. Super. LEXIS 105, 2025 LX 28595, 2025 WL 722119