Abatements

HUD regulations require owners to maintain their Section 8 units in accordance with Housing Quality Standards (HQS). Rental Assistance Corp. of Buffalo (RACB) is required to take prompt and vigorous action to enforce this requirement and is prohibited from making payments for a dwelling unit that fails to meet HQS, unless the owner corrects the defect(s) within certain time periods. If the defect is life threatening, the owner must correct the defect within 24 hours. For all other defects, the owner must make corrections within 30 days (or any approved extension).

When a unit fails an inspection, RACB will schedule a reinspection to confirm that the repairs have been properly completed within those time frames. If the unit fails this reinspection, the payments will be abated (stopped) as of the first of the following month. Once abated, these payments are lost; they will not be “made up” when/if the unit passes an inspection. Once the unit passes an inspection, payments will be pro-rated from the day the unit passes inspection.

To prevent the loss of rent, landlord should make every effort to correct violations within the time frames given.