Must Landlord Give Section 8 Program Notice of Eviction Case?

Landlord sued to evict tenant from a project-based HUD Section 8 building for allowing unauthorized occupants to live with him in the apartment. Tenant asked the court to dismiss the case, claiming several defects in the termination notice and court petition. Tenant claimed that landlord didn’t specify how tenant violated his lease in the termination notice. Tenant also claimed that landlord failed to state in the court petition which federal housing programs governed tenant’s tenancy, and failed to notify the housing authority of the proceeding. Landlord argued that the notice stated sufficient facts and that there was no requirement to make any additional notice to the Section 8 program because all paperwork was administered and completed on site at the building.

The court ruled for landlord in part. Landlord’s notice to cure listed by name the individuals landlord claimed were unauthorized occupants. Although there were no specific dates listed in the cure notice, the cure notice together with the termination notice sufficiently notified tenant of landlord’s claim that tenant violated his lease and HUD guidelines because he failed to list all residents in his income recertification statements. In addition, the fact that landlord didn’t state tenant’s Section 8 status in the petition wasn’t a defect warranting dismissal of the case. But there was a question, to be decided at a hearing, as to whether the public housing authority was on notice of this proceeding and apprised of tenant’s Section 8 status, based on the fact that the building was a project-based HUD building.

New Greenwich Gardens Associates LLC v. Saunders: NYLJ, 2/4/09, p. 29, col. 3 (Dist. Ct. Nassau; Fairgrieve, J)