Dealing with Households

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As you know, first impressions are lasting ones. In the apartment industry, first impressions can mean the difference between high turnover and high renewal rates. Industry studies show that residents typically make their renewal decisions within the first 48 hours of residing at a community, say marketing experts Lisa Trosien and Tracey Hopkins. And in surveys conducted by some management companies, residents rated good move-in procedures as being very important to them.

Many elderly residents are capable of living independently and paying their rent on time. But sooner or later, you may have an elderly resident who has trouble coping with day-to-day concerns, such as managing money, paying rent on time, or keeping his unit tidy. An elderly resident who has trouble coping may neglect normal upkeep in his unit. He may eventually stop cleaning, let his bathtub overflow, or leave the gas range on—putting himself, other residents, and your site at risk.

According to U.S. Census data released in June 2011, more than half—51.6 percent—of all the country's businesses that responded to the 2007 Survey of Business Owners were operated primarily within homes or other noncommercial spaces. And because the data was compiled before the recession began in 2008, it may be safe to assume that there has been a sharp increase in home-based businesses since then.

One way households may steal electricity is by stealing from the building supply. Households may tamper with wiring and hook up directly to your building's metered electricity supply. A resident who does this taps into power that you're paying for. Another way to steal electricity is directly from other households. In this case, a household may tap into a neighboring household's metered electricity supply. While this type of tampering may not happen often at your building, it can cause big problems when it does.

Last month, the Insider discussed how to determine whether an absentee's confinement in a hospital or nursing home is temporary or permanent. Problems with noncompliance can arise if you don't count the income of an absentee who should be considered a member of the household. Because of this, you may treat the household as being within the income limits when it's not.

Sometimes verification sources don't return the forms that you send them to verify certain information such as a household member's income or student status. In these situations, you must try to verify the information by telephoning the sources. To stay in tax credit compliance, you're required to keep a written record of these telephone calls, the people to whom you spoke, and the information obtained during the calls [HUD Handbook 4350.3, par. 5-19].

It's easy to make a mistake when calculating the rent you charge low-income households at your tax credit site. For instance, a staff member might have made an error in arithmetic when adding a household's utility allowance, or staff may have used the income limits for the wrong geographic area or family size to calculate a resident's rent.

According to HUD's latest report on U.S. Rental Housing Characteristics, vacancies in assisted rental housing are much lower than the national average. Fewer units are affordable to low-income renters. In fact, according to the 2011 Housing and Homelessness policy statement distributed by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, low-income renters have faced the tightest market for affordable housing since 1985.

Many managers assume that applicants with Section 8 vouchers are automatically eligible for tax credit housing. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Households that are eligible for Section 8 assistance may not be eligible for tax credit housing. Or, if eligible, they may not be able to afford your rent. And household income information from the local public housing authority (PHA) may not satisfy tax credit certification requirements.