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April 11, 2012 

Resident Rent Collection 

Based on recent consultation with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a procedural change in IFA's Management Occupancy Review procedure is being implemented.
 
Effective June 1, 2012, the Iowa Finance Authority will begin requiring each property to provide a Rent Receivable Ledger that details the amount of past due rent for each Resident. The Ledger will be reviewed to ensure that appropriate actions have been taken in regard to any Resident's rent greater than 30 days past due.


In cases where the Owner/Agent is working with the Resident to recover past due balances caused by income discrepancies that were discovered through the use of EIV or through other factors, documentation of the amount due and payment date must be readily available for review. Keep in mind that a written repayment agreement is the easiest way to document all amounts owed by the Resident.
 
Each property should have a written rental collection policy that indicates when delinquency notices are sent and evictions are initiated.  In order to develop consistency and avoid the potential for discrimination, the following timeframes are to be implemented for Residents that do not pay their portion of the rent (including amounts due by a repayment agreement) in a timely manner:


The rental collection policy needs to establish a specific date that a delinquency notice will be sent to the Resident when the Resident's monthly payment has not been received by the due date. If a Resident's rent is greater than 30 days past due, eviction proceedings should be initiated in a timely manner.  In these cases, the time period from "30 days past due to 60 days past due" is considered timely. Therefore, a Resident's rent should not be more than 60 days past due, before an Owner/Agent begins eviction proceedings.
 

If a property continues to have high Resident Accounts Receivables, HUD will consider requiring the property to repay all subsidy amounts received during the time the Resident portion of the rent was not collected. 
 

Please contact your Housing Compliance Specialist with any questions regarding this revised policy. The Iowa Finance Authority Section 8 Team can be reached at (800) 432-7230.

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