Statute of pay back of section 8 rent

[Schwippsy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Illinois

I co-owned a building in 2005 which we rent out to section 8 tenants. The building was in my name and the other co-owner is no longer around. We sold the building in spring 2006 and the last tenant moved out in Dec 2005.
Today I receive a call from collections that section 8 says they overpaid me over $1500 in rent for a tenant. I do not know the details yet as collections did not have that all, but I have never received any request from section 8 to look into this, so I was not even aware the last 4.5 years that there might be an issue. I know they do not have their paperwork straight, but I also know I did not get overpaid, but I can't look up details anymore as all info is on a laptop that died.
What is the statute of Chicago Housing Authority INC being able to ask for any overpaid money after all these years?
My second question is, if there was a contract with the tenant to give me 30 day notice and they did not, what would be the last day that I was supposed to get paid rent, the day of the move or +30 days?
Thanks for your help!

 

[FarmerJ]

If a tenant fails to provide proper notice to vacate and moves away normally it is fair that you are entitled to one months rent at the very least to cover the lack of notice. EG ( like tenant moves away in third week of sept then its fair that they would owe atleast oct rent or a prorated lower amount if a new customer was able to move in right away) I would say perhaps you should gather copies of the records from the sale of the building then contact the housing assistance program so you can attempt to learn the details of the claim such as the months/ client they claim are overpayment and if you still have that old lap top take it to a computer firm that specializes in data recovery and have the data recovered from the HD in it.

 

[DeenaCA]

My second question is, if there was a contract with the tenant to give me 30 day notice and they did not, what would be the last day that I was supposed to get paid rent, the day of the move or +30 days?

The housing authority only pays through the end of the month in which the family moves. See 24 CFR 982.311(d):

Family move-out. (1) If the family moves out of the unit, the PHA may not make any housing assistance payment to the owner for any month after the month when the family moves out. The owner may keep the housing assistance payment for the month when the family moves out of the unit.

The tenant might owe you rent due to inadequate notice, but the housing authority can't pay past the end of the month.

I don't know the answer to your first question (about a time limit on billing you). HUD requires housing authorities to attempt to collect all overpaid housing assistance, with no exceptions. I'd recommend that you contact the housing authority to request an explanation of the overpayment.

 

[Schwippsy]

Thank you for your time.
I just found the old contract and it actually said she needed to give us 45 days notice which she did not. However I understand that scetion 8 will not grant that. I find thsi quite confusing. I made a contract with the tenant not CHA. CHA has the agreement with the tenant to pay some of the rent. So shouldn't they ask the tenant to stick to the contract agreement not to cause this kind of issues and hold the tenant liable?
I still need to find out how many years after this happened they can ask for any repayment, because I never heard anything in the last 4.5 years and now they pop up out of the blue. It would have been much easier to sort this out back then.
Again I very much appreciate your input and time to respond to my post.

 

[FarmerJ]

are you certain you had no contracts with the housing assistance program itself ? When I had a tenant that was in a HAP I also had to sign contract with them , it wasnt the same as lease but I was still tied to the HAP rules If you can find any other documents that were from the HAP they may have details as to over payment issues , also gotta ask , when the checks from the HAP came were they issued in one name ? is there a chance former business partner could have gotten them and cashed them ?

 

[Schwippsy]

No I am not certain, but maybe I go online and see, if I can access some of the CHA rules there. However they might have changed in the last 5 years as well.
No I doubt the other party managed to cash a check.
I did find a paper that I had faxed in for a lost check. Maybe their database is showing they issued that check, but I never actually got it cashed and they might not have their file updated.
I should receive some paperwork from the collection agency soon and then I will know better what to look for.
It just puzzles me that they can come now to ask for this and have the nerve to send it to collections without sending me a letter first. They know where to find me, my address has not changed since.