Elderly Tenants Successfully Enforce Notice Requirements for Section 8 Opt-Out

This NHLP Housing Law Bulletin article from April-May 2007 describes a case in which a federal court in California issued a preliminary injunction to block an owner from proceeding with threatened rent increases and evictions for nonpayment until it complied with federal statutory notice requirements to end participation in the project-based Section 8 program. This decision should be useful in cases where owners fail to provide the specific notices often required by federal or state law to convert housing to market-rate use. It should also help when owners, often with the blessing of HUD, seek to convert based upon a defective notice when one year has elapsed since it was issued.