No Notice to Tenant of Termination of Rent Subsidy

NYCHA terminated tenant's Section 8 rent subsidy. Tenant appealed this decision in court. NYCHA claimed that the case wasn't on time because tenant hadn't started it within four months after her Section 8 subsidy was terminated. The court ruled for tenant. After asking for information about whether tenant's family member still lived in the apartment, NYCHA sent tenant a Notice of Termination of Section 8 Subsidy and a follow-up default notice. But NYCHA mailed these documents in September and October 1996 to tenant's ex-husband at the apartment, although he never lived there. Tenant claimed she never received the notices. In January 1997, landlord told tenant that NYCHA had stopped making her Section 8 rent payments. Tenant immediately went to NYCHA and received oral confirmation that her benefits had been terminated. Six months later tenant brought the case. Since NYCHA never mailed the termination notices to tenant, the four-month time limit for appealing this decision never started to run. So tenant's appeal was on time. NYCHA was ordered to answer tenant's petition on the merits.

Mendez v. Franco: NYLJ, p. 27, col. 3 (1/27/99) (Sup. Ct. NY; Freedman, J)