HUD rules require tenants receiving federal housing assistance to furnish their landlords with updated information about their household income, assets, and composition each year. Annual recertification is crucial to verify tenants’ continued eligibility for assistance and determine their annual rent. This scenario, which comes from an actual federal case from Maryland, illustrates some of the legal challenges landlords face in cracking down on tenants who fail to comply with their annual recertification responsibilities.   

SITUATION

A landlord brings an eviction case against a federally subsidized tenant for failure to annually recertify her income. The timeline of events is crucial to the case:  

Dec. 1, 2024: The landlord sends the tenant an annual recertification reminder letter, but she doesn’t respond.

Jan. 1, 2025: The landlord sends the tenant a second reminder.

Feb. 1, 2025: Having received no response to the second letter, the landlord sends a Third Reminder Notice advising the tenant that her rent will increase to market rate of $671 on April 1 if she doesn’t recertify by then. The notice also refers to the landlord’s right to terminate the lease if the tenant doesn’t pay the increased rent and invites her to contact the property manager within 10 days to discuss potential termination of assistance.

April 15, 2025: The landlord sends the tenant a termination of assistance for failure to recertify notice and gives her 15 days to appeal.

The tenant neither appeals nor recertifies and continues to pay what had been the previous portion of her rent. 

July 19, 2025: The landlord serves a notice giving the tenant 30 days to quit;

Aug. 22, 2025: One day after the quit date, the tenant completes her recertification.

On that same day, the landlord provides the tenant with two documents. The first is a letter (the Recertification Letter) indicating that her rent has been adjusted to $671, effective Aug. 22, 2025, and noting that Paragraph 3 of her lease, which sets forth her monthly rent, has been amended accordingly. The landlord also requires the tenant to sign a Non-Waiver Agreement acknowledging:

• That participation in the recertification process “shall not be construed as a reinstatement of the tenancy, and the landlord may continue the summary process actions as if recertification had not occurred”; and 
• That “any reference to in any document prepared in the course of the recertification process shall not be deemed to reinstate the tenancy which was previously terminated by service of the Notice to Quit.” 

A few weeks later: The landlord initiates a summary process eviction proceeding. The tenant asks the court to dismiss the case, contending that the landlord didn’t serve proper notice of termination of assistance and “equivocated” its eviction notice by recertifying her and referring to the lease and new rent in the Recertification Letter.   

YOU MAKE THE CALL

Did the court allow the landlord to evict the tenant?

A.         No, because the Recertification Letter equivocated the notice to quit

B.         No, because the landlord didn’t properly terminate the tenant’s assistance in accordance with HUD rules

C.         Yes, because the landlord provided proper notice and did not equivocate its notice to quit 

D.         Yes, because the tenant’s failure to recertify was grounds for immediate eviction 

ANSWER

C. The landlord has a valid case for eviction because it did provide proper notice and didn’t equivocate.

EXPLANATION

The tenant in this case acknowledged her failure to recertify but claimed the eviction was invalid because of how the landlord handled the process based on two important landlord duties:

1. Landlord duty to provide notice of termination of assistance. The HUD Handbook sets out the procedures a landlord must follow to terminate the lease and seek the eviction of a tenant for failure to recertify. First, landlords must send an annual notice reminding tenants of their obligation to recertify followed by a second notice if they fail to respond. If, as in this scenario, the tenant ignores the first two notices, the landlord must provide a “Third Reminder Notice” within 60 days of “the anniversary date”—that is, the first day of the month the tenant moved in or began receiving HUD assistance. The Third Reminder Notice also serves as a 60-day notice to terminate assistance, as well as a 60-day rent increase notice. As such, it must list: 

• The specific date the assistance will terminate; 
• The reason(s) for terminating assistance; 
• The amount of rent the tenant will be required to pay; 
• Notification that if the tenant fails to pay the increased rent, the landlord may terminate tenancy and seek to enforce the termination in court; and 
• Notification of the tenant’s right to request, within 10 calendar days from the date of the notice, a meeting with the landlord to discuss the proposed termination of assistance.

2. Landlord duty to provide clear eviction notice without “equivocation.” A landlord with a valid claim to evict a tenant for failure to recertify can still lose its rights by equivocating, or being vague and leaving the tenant unclear about its intentions. The tenant claimed that the landlord sent mixed signals by sending the Recertification Letter referencing her lease and the new rent on the very same day it sent her the 30-day notice to quit. 

The Maryland federal court rejected both of the tenant’s defenses for reasons that we’ll explain below. Bottom Line: The landlord did provide proper notice of assistance termination and didn’t equivocate its notice to quit. So, C is the right answer [Presidential Vill., LLC v. Legrand, 2025 Conn. Super. LEXIS 3269, 2025 LX 598503, 2025 WL 3281403].

WHY WRONG ANSWERS ARE WRONG

A is wrong because the landlord and its attorney were savvy enough to anticipate and preempt the equivocation argument by having the tenant sign the non-waiver agreement, which expressly stated that engaging in the recertification process and making references to the tenancy in other documents connected with recertification (in this case, the Recertification Letter) were not to be construed as reinstating the tenancy or waiving the landlord’s right to initiate summary eviction as if recertification had never happened. 

B is wrong because the court ruled that the landlord did provide proper notice of termination of assistance. Specifically, the Third Reminder Notice contained all of the information required by the HUD Handbook and was “nearly identical” to the template contained in the Handbook (which we’ve reprinted in the Model Notice on p. X).

D is wrong because a landlord can’t terminate a lease and bring summary eviction proceedings against a tenant for failure to recertify unless it first provides proper notice of termination of assistance. In legal terms, following the termination of assistance process is a “condition precedent” to eviction for failure to recertify.   

MODEL NOTICE

Model Third Reminder Notice/Notice of Termination of Assistance

for Failure to Respond to Annual Recertification Requests

The HUD Handbook requires landlords to send annual notices reminding tenants of their obligation to recertify. If a tenant doesn’t respond to the first two notices, the landlord must provide a “Third Reminder Notice,” which also serves as a 60-day notice to terminate assistance, within 60 days of “the anniversary date,” that is, the first day of the month the tenant moved in or began receiving HUD assistance. Here’s the Model Third Reminder Notice contained in the HUD Handbook [Chapter 7-7 (B)(4)(a)]. Just be sure to fill in the blanks. 

ANNUAL RECERTIFICATION 

THIRD REMINDER NOTICE/NOTICE OF TERMINATION

[Tenant’s Name] 

[Address]

[Date (which must be at least 60 days prior to the upcoming recertification anniversary date)] 

Dear _____________: 

On [list date of First Reminder Notice] and [list date of Second Reminder Notice] we sent you notices requesting you to set up your recertification interview. You still have not scheduled your interview. Paragraph [list the paragraph number that corresponds to the paragraph of the model lease being used for the tenant] of your lease states that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that we review your income and family composition every year to redetermine rent and assistance levels. 

To complete our review of your income and family composition, you must meet with [Resident Manager, Occupancy Clerk, etc.] at [list place of interview] and provide the required information and signatures to enable the owner to process your recertification. Your cooperation with the recertification requirement is a condition of continued program participation. [Resident Manager, Occupancy Clerk, etc.] will be available for recertification interviews [list dates and times available]. Please contact [Resident Manager, Occupancy Clerk, etc.] [by phone, at the office] as soon as possible to schedule an appointment for an interview. 

If you meet with [Resident Manager, Occupancy Clerk, etc.] and provide all of the required information and signatures, we will not terminate your assistance unless your income shows you are no longer eligible for assistance. If you report to the Rental Office after [insert the cutoff date, the 10th day of the 11th month after the last annual recertification], we will process your recertification but will not provide you 30 days’ notice of any resulting rent increase. 

To help us process your recertification, you must bring the following information to your interview. [List all required information.] 

[NOTE: For tenants of all projects, except PRAC projects, add the following.] If you do not respond before [insert recertification anniversary date], paragraph [15 or 14] of your lease gives us the right to terminate your assistance and charge you the [insert type of rent, either market rent, contract rent or 110% of BMIR rent] of $______ [insert the rent the tenant will be required to pay], effective [insert the recertification anniversary date]. This increase in rent will be made without providing you additional notice. If you fail to pay the increased rent, we may terminate your tenancy and seek to enforce the termination in court.

[NOTE: For tenants in PRAC projects add the following sentence.] If you do not respond before [insert the recertification anniversary date], your tenancy may be terminated. 

Please do not make us increase your rent. Go to the Rental Office today to set up your interview and to discuss your recertification and any possible change in rent. Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely, 

[Managing Agent, Resident Manager, etc.]