What Happens If You Miss Your Section 8 Recertification? How to Fix It

A missed yearly recertification can cost Mom market rent or put her rent help at risk, but if a hospital stay or disability caused it, the rules offer a way back.1,2,3 What happens if she missed her Section 8 recertification depends on which kind of rent help she gets from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In a HUD multifamily building, such as a project-based Section 8 building, the owner has to send three reminder notices first, and a tenant who reports on or after her anniversary date must start paying market rent from that date until her assistance is reinstated. If a hospital stay or something else beyond her control kept her from answering, the owner must ask about it, and if the owner finds that was the reason, the recertification takes effect back to the anniversary date.1 On a Housing Choice Voucher or in public housing, the housing agency may end her assistance when the information isn't provided on time, so the time to act is before it does.2,4 Below, program by program, is what the rules say and what your family can do this week.

In This Guide

• Which Kind of HUD Housing Is Mom In?
• What Happens If You Miss Your Section 8 Recertification, Program by Program
• In a HUD Multifamily or Section 202 Building
• If Mom Missed Her Section 8 Recertification on a Housing Choice Voucher
• If Mom Lives in Public Housing
• When a Disability or Hospital Stay Caused the Miss: Asking for a Reasonable Accommodation
• What to Do This Week
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Which Kind of HUD Housing Is Mom In?

You may hear "Section 8" used for more than one kind of HUD rent help, and that's completely understandable. But the rules for a missed recertification split three ways, and the quickest clue is who sent Mom the paperwork. In a HUD multifamily building, including Section 202 senior buildings, the building's owner sends the recertification reminder notices.1 With a Housing Choice Voucher or in public housing, the housing agency conducts the yearly reexamination of income and family composition.2,4

If you're still not sure, our guide to whether subsidized housing can evict Mom walks through how to tell the programs apart, and the affordable senior housing guide shows how they fit together.

What Happens If You Miss Your Section 8 Recertification, Program by Program

Here is the short version for each program. The sections below explain each row, and the multifamily rules in the first row belong to that program alone.

In a HUD Multifamily or Section 202 Building

This is where the rules are most detailed, and where a letter about "market rent" usually comes from. If you just found one in Mom's mail, take a breath. The handbook these buildings follow, HUD Handbook 4350.3, Chapter 7, builds in several chances to catch a miss, and a way back once one happens.1 If her building is a Section 202 or 811 PRAC property, the market-rent rules below work differently, so jump to that subsection.

The three reminder notices

Under HUD's multifamily handbook, the owner must give the tenant an Initial Notice at lease signing and at each annual recertification. Then come three reminders before the recertification anniversary date:

• First reminder: at least 120 days before the anniversary date.
• Second reminder: about 90 days before, if she hasn't responded within 30 days of the first.
• Third reminder: no later than 60 days before, if she still hasn't responded. This one also serves as a 60-day notice to terminate assistance and a 60-day rent-increase notice, and it must state the rent she'll owe if the information isn't provided by the anniversary date.1

If Mom was in the hospital, in rehab or simply overwhelmed during those months, those letters may be sitting unopened. That third notice is the one to look for, because it names the dollar amount she'll be charged.

What happens depends on when she answers

HUD Handbook 4350.3 sets a cutoff date for HUD multifamily buildings: the 10th day of the 11th month after the tenant's last annual recertification. What follows depends on where her response falls.1

• She responds after the cutoff but before the anniversary date. If the owner sent all three reminders as HUD requires, the owner processes the recertification, and the rent and assistance changes are retroactive to the anniversary date.1
• The owner didn't send timely reminders. Changes in the assistance payment take effect on the anniversary date, but a rent increase takes effect only on the first of the month after a 30-day notice period.1
• She reports on or after the anniversary date, after all three notices. She must begin paying market rent on the anniversary date. The reminder notices describe this as losing the assistance and, in a Section 8 or Section 202 PAC building, paying the full contract rent.1

HUD's model lease for subsidized programs says the same thing from the lease side: if the tenant doesn't submit her recertification information by the date the landlord specifies, the landlord may require the higher, HUD-approved market rent and put a resulting rent increase in place without the usual 30-day notice, but only in accordance with HUD's procedures and time frames.1

Getting her assistance back

This is the part that should ease your mind a little. In a HUD multifamily building, the handbook says assistance should be reinstated if assistance is available at the property, the tenant submits the required information, and the owner determines she qualifies. Under HUD's multifamily handbook, the tenant's new rent takes effect on the first of the month after she reports, and she pays market rent until then.1 So the longer the paperwork waits, the longer she pays the higher rent. If you can only do one thing today, get her information to the office. If you want to check whether the new rent figure is right, see how HUD calculates rent for older adults.

Can the owner evict her over this?

In a HUD multifamily building, the owner may not evict a tenant for failing to pay market rent after she reports for the recertification interview and the owner is processing her certification. The owner is obligated to evict for nonpayment only when the tenant fails to report for the recertification interview and also fails to pay market rent or make arrangements to pay it.1 Reporting, or arranging to pay while you sort it out, takes her out of that second situation.

If a hospital stay caused it: extenuating circumstances

When a tenant in a HUD multifamily building misses the anniversary date, the owner must ask whether extenuating circumstances, meaning circumstances beyond her control, kept her from responding in time. The handbook's first example is hospitalization of the tenant. For a tenant with disabilities, the owner must consider extenuating circumstances when a reasonable accommodation would require it.1

• If the owner finds they were present, the recertification takes effect retroactively to the anniversary date.1
• If the owner denies them, Mom may, within 10 days of notification, meet with the owner or a designated representative to appeal the move to market rent, and the owner must arrange for someone who wasn't part of the original decision to run that meeting.1

Don't wait for the owner to ask. If she was in the hospital, say so, and keep the discharge paperwork handy. These extenuating-circumstance and appeal steps come from the multifamily handbook; for a voucher or public housing, see those sections below.

If her building is a Section 202 or 811 PRAC property

Some Section 202 and Section 811 buildings get their rent help through a Project Rental Assistance Contract (PRAC), and the rules there read differently. In a PRAC building, the reminder notices state that the tenant may be evicted for not complying with the lease requirement to recertify every year. The handbook's own note for a tenant out of compliance goes further and says the tenant will be evicted. In a Section 202 or 811 PRAC building, until eviction procedures are completed, the tenant pays the greater of the operating rent or 30% of her income.1

That handbook language is frightening to read about your own parent, so here is the rest of it. The handbook's example shows the eviction process stopped when the tenant responds. HUD's multifamily handbook tells owners that eviction should be pursued only as a last measure, and that before any eviction they must make every effort to contact disabled and frail elderly tenants so the recertification requirements are communicated in a way the tenant understands.1 If no one ever explained the paperwork to Mom in a way she could follow, tell the owner that.

If Mom Missed Her Section 8 Recertification on a Housing Choice Voucher

With a voucher, the stakes are her rent help itself, and that can feel like the ground shifting under her. In the Housing Choice Voucher program, 24 CFR 982.516 requires the housing agency to reexamine family income and composition at least once a year. Under 24 CFR 982.551, supplying the information the agency or HUD asks for in that reexamination is one of the voucher family obligations. Under 24 CFR 982.552, violating a family obligation is a ground on which the agency may terminate the family's assistance. HUD's voucher-tenant page lists completing a yearly review among the things a family must do to keep its voucher.2

HUD's guidance says the agency may terminate if the tenant fails to provide requested information in a timely manner, "as prescribed by the PHA", meaning the housing agency. For her deadline and how her agency handles a late response, check its letter or its written policy.2

If the agency decides to end the voucher, it must offer an informal hearing before it stops housing assistance payments, and its written notice must state the deadline to ask for one.6 How that hearing works is covered in our guide to subsidized housing eviction and hearing rights. And if Mom receives fixed income, such as Social Security or a pension, her agency may use a simpler streamlined income review at her annual reexamination; how HUD calculates senior rent explains it.2

If Mom Lives in Public Housing

Public housing runs on a yearly review too, with one twist. Under 24 CFR 960.257, if she pays an income-based rent, the housing agency must reexamine her income and family composition at least once a year. If a public housing tenant chose a flat rent, the housing agency must reexamine family composition yearly and income at least once every three years. Her lease includes an agreement to provide the income and family information the agency needs.4

Here the stakes are her apartment, not only her rent help, and that can feel overwhelming. HUD's guidance says a public housing agency may find a tenant out of compliance and terminate tenancy or assistance, or both, if she fails to provide the requested information in a timely manner, as the agency prescribes.4 The guidance says may, not must, so move now: call the agency, ask for its deadline in writing, and get her information in. If a disability is why she fell behind, a public housing tenant may request a reasonable accommodation at any time during her tenancy, including so she can meet lease requirements.7 If a termination notice has already arrived, our eviction and hearing rights guide covers what comes next.

When a Disability or Hospital Stay Caused the Miss: Asking for a Reasonable Accommodation

So often the paperwork slipped for a reason: a fall, a hospital stay, memory loss that crept in before anyone noticed. That isn't a failure on your part or hers. And in all three programs, HUD's rules give you a way to say so. A reasonable accommodation is a change or exception to a rule, policy or practice because of a disability.

• Housing Choice Voucher. If the family includes a person with disabilities, the agency's decision to terminate for the family's action or failure to act is subject to consideration of reasonable accommodation, and the agency may weigh mitigating circumstances related to a family member's disability. HUD's voucher guidebook gives this exact situation as its example: a person misses two annual reexamination appointments because of hospitalization or another disability-related need, and the agency must not take any adverse action. Instead, it provides another appointment date as a reasonable accommodation.3
• HUD multifamily buildings. HUD's multifamily handbook says the duty to provide a reasonable accommodation is present at all times throughout the tenancy of a person with disabilities, including during lease enforcement.8
• Public housing. Under 24 CFR 966.7, a tenant may request a reasonable accommodation at any time during the tenancy, including so she can meet lease requirements, and HUD's guidebook says a response may not be unreasonably delayed.7

How you ask. HUD and the Justice Department's joint statement on the Fair Housing Act says Mom doesn't have to make the request herself; a family member or someone else acting for her can. It can be made orally or in writing, and putting it in writing is usually helpful for both sides. You don't need to use the words "reasonable accommodation," as long as it's clear you're asking for an exception or change because of a disability. The provider must respond promptly. If her disability isn't obvious, the provider may ask for information that verifies it and shows how it connects to the request, but in most cases medical records aren't necessary.5

What to Do This Week

You don't have to fix everything at once. These steps, roughly in order, cover what matters most.

If the miss started with a long hospital or nursing home stay, our guide to keeping her apartment or voucher through a nursing home stay covers the absence rules.

Learn More

Find personalized help sorting out a missed HUD recertification for your parent at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.