Most residents are good about reporting maintenance problems. Some owners and managers may say that they’re too good. But there are residents who don’t report maintenance problems. Perhaps these residents are too busy or don’t want members of your maintenance staff in their units. But residents’ failure to report maintenance problems could result in severe damage to your tax credit site and harm to themselves.
When certifying low-income households at your tax credit site, you may encounter a situation in which you need to calculate income for military personnel. You may find the process difficult because you may have trouble obtaining the right documentation to prove to your state housing agency and the IRS that a household meets the tax credit program’s income-eligibility requirements. You may have trouble getting back the third-party Military Verification Form, or you may have trouble interpreting a copy of a service member’s recent Leave and Earnings Statement (LES).
Before you rent any unit at your tax credit site to a new household, it’s important to confirm that the rental will comply with the tax credit law. If your rental of a unit won’t comply, the owner’s credits for that unit may be at risk. And if the unit is one you must count to meet or maintain your site’s minimum set-aside, that one noncomplying unit may place all the owner’s credits in jeopardy.
As a tax credit manager, your main goal is to make sure that the owner of your site can claim all the credits allocated to the site. To do this, you must keep your site in compliance with the tax credit law throughout the compliance period. But because the tax credit program’s requirements are so complex, your site may get hit with violations, despite your best management efforts.
Tax credit site managers often find themselves wasting time and money processing applications for ineligible households. You need an easy way to get basic eligibility information right away so that you can focus your administrative efforts on eligible households.
Many units, especially older ones, aren’t set up to handle washing machines, dryers, and other large appliances. But even if your units don’t have hookups or the capacity to handle these appliances, some residents may still bring in portable units and connect them to the electrical outlets and plumbing fixtures. These machines can cause power failures, sewage backups, floods, and hot- and cold-water surges that can affect other residents at your tax credit site. They can also run up your water and electricity bills if you pay for residents’ utilities yourself.
Requiring application deposits for tax credit units is a good way to secure applicants and get signed leases later on, especially when new or substantially rehabilitated buildings aren’t ready. But when you accept a deposit, don’t inadvertently give the applicant the impression that you’re guaranteeing him a unit. Giving the impression that the deposit is a guarantee has led to legal disputes when the applicant’s circumstances changed and he was no longer eligible when the unit was ready.
As summer approaches and temperatures begin to rise, residents and their guests may be tempted to go up on the roof and sunbathe, barbecue, or just cool off from their hot units. Unfortunately, allowing people on the roofs of your site’s buildings can cause you many problems. For example, if a resident gets seriously injured or causes costly property damage, a court may rule that you’re liable for the injuries or damage because you let residents and guests use the roof.
With the beginning of spring, now is the optimal time to think about lease-ups and how you may turn over recently vacated units faster. That’s because spring and summer are the times when most sites experience their busiest leasing months. When a resident moves out, you shouldn’t let the process of turning around his empty unit drag on. The faster you turn the unit around, the sooner it will be presentable to new prospects and positive cash flow for the site can be restored.
At some point, you’re going to have to notify households that you’re raising their rent. Reasons for raising the rent on a low-income unit can include a utility allowance decrease, an over-income household, a change in your area’s median gross income, or, if the rent is below the maximum allowable limit, a decision to raise it. But it’s ill-advised to just slip the rent increase into a household’s next rent statement.
