Asking Questions Again

Through some hard work and a meal with the Mayor, I happened to reach the top of the food chain at CHAC.

Introductory phone calls were made and in a matter of hours I was talking to someone who actually had some pull.

It’s amazing how that works, huh?

Curiosity had set in about a few things and was hoping this individual could at least shed some procedural light on the whole CHAC process.

I wanted to know how a landlord could be in the foreclosure process and still manage to get paid for the same subsidized housing that is being foreclosed upon?

Now I have a pretty good idea that a landlord in the CHAC program can continue to get paid as long as he or she is the owner of record.

And if that’s the case, it’s time for the system to be overhauled. That loophole is so glaring it simply rolls out the red carpet for potential fraud and waste.

While there are procedures in place to check if property taxes are being paid, mortgages and assessments payments---not so much.

So to recap---CHAC basically gets swindled, condo associations left holding the bag for the back assessments or single family homes eventually go vacant and decent hard work families run the risk of getting evicted.

Quite a trifecta, no?

In light of this information I penned the following letter:

XXXX,

I have a few suggestions that should serve the best interest of tenants and associations with respect to CHAC rentals in condominiums. Hopefully these should be able to past legal muster and will require only policy and language changes.

As a part of the property certification process, the landlord would identify the building as a condominium.

He or she would also submit a copy of the condominium association's non profit good standing with the state. Such documentation can be easily obtained from the Secretary of State's website.

The applicant landlord would also sign-off on a form stating that he or she had read the declarations and bylaws of the association and will abide by all current and future adaptations of the document.

The applicant landlord would submit the names and contact information for all of officers of the condominium association which will later be verified by CHAC. The submitted information must match the information provided by the Secretary of State.

A clause should be inserted in stating that if the landlord falls 60 days behind in assessments to the condominium association or goes into foreclosure, their CHAC payments may be delayed and/or they may be suspended from the CHAC program.

My hope is to close the loopholes that allow irresponsible owners to financially devastate condominium associations as well as put the homes of your hard working clients at risk.

I welcome your feedback from my suggestions.