Compliance

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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 might throw out documents that could help you thwart lawsuits or documents HUD needs to look over for management reviews and audits to ensure that you're complying with HUD rules...

Assisted sites can amass a lot of legal expenses for site-related matters like evicting problem residents or drafting letters to comply with certain HUD rules. You can charge site-related legal expenses to your site's operating accounts, but only if you comply with HUD's rules on handling these expenses.

In last month's issue of the Insider, we told you of HUD's efforts to clamp down on excessive pay at public housing authorities by setting caps that extend and expand limits imposed by Congress. With increased HUD attention on salaries, this may be a good time for owners and managers to go over HUD rules on calculating management fees. If you try to include income from sources that HUD says aren't allowed, you could get in trouble with HUD auditors fo...

Getting cost estimates before you hire contractors to do work at your site is not only a smart business practice, but it's also a HUD requirement. If you don't get those required estimates, you could run afoul of HUD or your contract administrator. And you put the site owner at risk of having to pay back any costs HUD or your contract administrator find to be excessive.

Like some sites, you might end up buying goods or services from an outside contractor or vendor that has close business ties to the site owner or managing agent. In these situations, the vendors or contractors are considered identity-of-interest (IOI) contractors.

HUD says that an identity-of-interest relationship exists between the site's staff and a vendor when the site's staff member, any officer, owner, or director of the vendor, or any person who dire...

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 applicants who qualify for both the HUD-regulated Section 8 program and the IRS-regulated LIHTC program.

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 patients will be referred to state-licensed and regulated “compassion centers,” which will be responsible for growing, cultivating, and dispensing the marijuana.

If you want to postpone or cancel a REAC inspection for good cause, the first step is to contact the HUD Hub or Program Center that has jurisdiction over the site to request the postponement or cancellation.

REAC inspector Kay McIlmoil says there are reasons that call for a postponement or cancellation. Examples were outlined in a letter from HUD's acting director of the Office of Asset Management to the National Affordable Housing Management Association, &ldq...

HUD's regulations governing resident participation in multifamily housing projects are found in the Code of Federal Regulations at 24 CFR Part 245. The regulations reflect HUD's commitment to resident participation, individually and through legitimate resident organizations. HUD has emphasized that compliance with these requirements is expected. Site owners and managers found violating these regulations can face sanctions that include monetary penalties.

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Although HUD's “One Strike” rule was announced in 1996 by the Clinton administration and took effect in its final form nearly a decade ago, it has been a controversial and confusing regulation.

The rule is intended to help sites screen applicants for drug abuse and other criminal activity. It also supports the effort to evict households because of drug abuse or other crimes. The rule spells out admission and screening requirements with the goal of ...