Owner Update “Question of The Month”

Q: Why does TMHA ask tenants to provide rent receipts and utility bills at the annual recertification time.

A. TMHA staff will cover a number of issues with the tenant family at recert. time. A part of that process is to take a look at how the tenant is paying their part of the rent and the utilities not included in the rent, for the following reasons:

RENT: Most families on the program pay some part of the rent not covered by the HAP Payment. We want to see if the tenant is keeping up with their rent payments. If they are not, it gives us a chance to counsel the tenant on the problems that can occur as a result of non-payment.

The most significant problem is that the owner has the right to evict the tenant for non-payment; being on TMHA’s program does not somehow protect the tenant from eviction for legitimate lease violations. IF THE TENANT FAMILY IS SUCCESSFULLY EVICTED FROM THE PROGRAM UNIT, THEY ARE AUTOMATICALLY TERMINATED FROM THE VOUCHER RENTAL PROGRAM. The only exception to this termination rule is some accommodation that should be considered in regard to a person’s medical or disabled status.

We ask tenants for rent receipts. If they don’t have those, we will accept a written statement or phone call from the owner / manager as to the status of the rent payments. A NOTE ABOUT RENT RECEIPTS – we think owners / managers should always give rent receipts as a protection to both tenant and owner. It’s just good business procedure.

UTILITY BILLS: Often the tenant family is responsible to pay some utilities that are not included in the rent. (We take this into account when we calculate the amount of subsidy we will pay toward HAP.) When we ask to see utility bills, we are looking to see if there are large balances or even turn off notices. IF THE TENANT FAMILY DOES NOT PAY THE BILL AND THE UTILITY IS TURNED OFF, THE UNIT FAILS THE HQS INSPECTION. In this case the tenant family is at fault and will be required to correct the problem (get the utility back on). TMHA is required to TERMINATE the family if they do not restore the utility In this case the HAP Contract ends.

TMHA also reviews the utility information as given on the lease to make sure the correct parties are paying the utilities. Sometimes there is a misinterpretation of who should be paying what utility. TMHA will straighten out these issues at recert time by reviewing the established lease provisions and through communication with both tenant and landlord.

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