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Tax credit sites are required to abide by the nondiscrimination provisions of the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) and their state or local fair housing laws. It's imperative that site owners and managers know the rules. The IRS has stated that a finding of discrimination by the Justice Department or HUD could result in the loss (or recapture) of tax credits.

Deep rent-skewing is an attractive option for sites in cities where market-rate rents are high. If you manage or are about to manage a site in such a city, your site’s owner may have decided that it was more economically feasible to make your site “deep rent-skewed.” The owner may have decided to obtain this designation to garner support needed to finance and build the site, or the owner may have wanted to develop a mixed-income site with market-rate units equipped with high rent-garnering amenities.

Every manager’s worst nightmare is a violent crime against a resident at his tax credit site. And compounding the tragedy of the crime is the risk of liability. You could be held liable for the crime if you knew your residents were at risk of that type of crime. In legal terms, the crime would be “foreseeable” and you'd failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it from happening for you to be liable, says security and liability consultant Jon Groussman.

It’s common to hire new employees who may have some experience in conventional site management, but no experience in tax credit site management. Because the tax credit program is complicated, you can’t expect these new employees to learn all the rules overnight. But until they get tax credit experience, they may pose a threat to the owner’s tax credits. That’s why it’s a good idea to give new employees a short, written summary of the tax credit program as early as you can.

When your state housing agency tells you the date it plans to inspect low-income units at your tax credit site, it’s a good idea to tell your residents. You can send a letter to residents telling them the date of the inspection and why the agency may be visiting their units. We’ve put together a Model Letter: Tell Residents When State Housing Agency Will Inspect Units, that you can adapt and use for this purpose.

If students want to live in low-income units at your tax credit site, you must make sure you comply with the student rule. This rule says that, generally speaking, households composed entirely of full-time students aren’t eligible to occupy low-income units at any time during the compliance period.

By Carolyn Zezima, Esq.

Suppose an applicant or a household member at your tax credit site tells you she has been in an automobile accident and will be on disability for a while. She has no idea when it will be possible for her to work again. In the case of the household member, if your site isn’t a 100 percent low-income housing tax credit site, you’ll need to verify her benefits to ensure that her household’s income hasn’t increased above 140 percent of the income limitation.

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).

You’ve placed ads in the newspaper and on the Internet to market your tax credit site. Your efforts prove successful, and before you know it you’re busy handling phone calls and visits from prospects. When this happens, you should be prepared to make the most of your first meeting with prospects. For example, if you’re not sure how to handle common issues that arise when meeting prospects for the first time, you could fail to get all the information you need and miss out on a chance to impress good prospects.