1.7.4 Practice Tips

When assisting a public housing tenant facing eviction, request a meeting with the PHA’s legal or other representative. Often, these individuals are willing to negotiate and either remove the problematic household member from the lease, thus allowing the other household members to remain, or allow a probationary period. If a tenant successfully completes this probationary period by complying with all of the tenant obligations, the tenant will not be evicted. A probationary period agreement can be entered into the court record as a consent agreement.

While the case is pending, you should have the tenant deposit the rent into a PHA escrow account or into your client trust account. PHAs will usually not accept rent from a tenant once a decision has been made to evict. Particularly with drug or criminal activity evictions, which may last several months, it is important that the rent be deposited in a safe place in the event that a settlement is reached or a favorable judgment obtained. If the tenant has not been putting the rent aside pending the outcome of the eviction case, you may have stopped an eviction based on the lease violation only to find your client evicted for nonpayment of the accrued rent.