Hello, and thank you for joining us for today's Tuesday tip. Today we're going to look at waiting lists and how to make sure that yours is compliant with HUD guidelines. HUD requirements for waiting lists are going to be found in chapter four of the HUD 4350.3. That is wait lists and tenant selection. And the different aspects that it covers are your tenant selection plan, marketing, wait list management.

And then how you select tenants from the wait list.

Required information for your wait list is going to be found in paragraph 4-16D of the HUD 4350.3. You need to make sure that your wait list shows the date and time of application, the name of the head of household, the income level, and that's going to be low income, very low, extremely low, whether or not they need an accessible unit, their preference status, and the unit size.

Those are the critical elements of the wait list. Generally speaking, you do not want to have gender, race, and ethnicity, et cetera, on a working wait list, the one that you work with every day. That information may need to be given at management review time, but it shouldn't really be on the wait list that everyone is looking.


Common MOR findings when it comes to wait list, failure to note the time of receipt on an application. So remember, you either need to be date stamping that with date and time, or date stamping and handwriting the time with the initials of the person taking the application. Another common finding is no preference column on the waiting list. It's a common misconception that if you don't have preferences, you don't need to have that column. It is a required

Required column in your wait list. And if the person doesn't have any preference status, you just leave it blank. But your wait list does need to show preference status as a column. No notes as to status. Remember, when we come to review your files, we are looking for what happened to applicants on the wait list. So whether they decided they weren't interested or were skipped over because they're in the hospital, whatever is going on with them, there need to be notes as to status.

And incomplete data. So make sure that your wait list has all of the columns and all of the information that HUD requires.

So let's talk about your working wait list versus the one that you turn over for your MOR. You can work with a version of the wait list that's more simple, meaning you can tell your software to print out a wait list that omits certain columns so that it's easier to work with. It may only list your active tenants because I don't need to look at the ones that came off the wait list. I just want to know who's on the wait list. And it can be printed.

With just the necessary info, name, date of application, unit size, none of the notes, that kind of thing. But when you provide your wait list at the management review, we need to see all of the applicant data. So we need to see active and inapplicate inactive applicants. We need to have the race and ethnicity information on there. So let's talk for a minute about your working wait list versus your MLR wait list. The wait list that you work with every day that you're calling tenants from, etc. You can work with a paper copy that shows you just your active tenants. You can print a copy that's just the three-bedroom wait list and omits all of the notes and things so that it's easier to make calls from. However,

All of the notes and everything need to be kept on a master wait list. That's the list you're going to provide at your management review. And there's a lot of information we need to see on that wait list. We need to see your active and inactive applicants. So the people that were removed from the wait list, when and why. We need to see race and ethnicity information. We need to see the notes in terms of what happened to those applicants.

And it's easier for us to review when you sort it by unit size or type. So the one bedroom wait list, the two bedroom wait list, the three bedroom wait list, and you know, adapted units versus non, so that we can s track who moved in and when and the proper order.

Very important then when you are filling applicants off your wait list, you are following your selection policy. Read it, know it, use it. Make sure you know any priorities and preferences that apply at your property, and make sure any notes regarding what happened with an applicant are clear.

When you're doing wait list updates, you really need to be purging these things regularly, depending on how fast your list moves. It can vary how often you do that, but generally you're talking about yearly. I've also seen people who do a six-month purge, but a yearly purge is generally fine for most properties. You can open or close the wait list for specific unit sizes or types, but you're going to be making sure you follow your selection plan.

Because your selection plan details when you will close and open a wait list and how you're going to notify potential applicants that your wait list is closed or opening. Document status updates clearly in the tenant file and on the wait list. You can do that electronically, that is fine, but just make sure the notes are there to show any changes of status. Track removal notices. If you are removing somebody from the wait list for failure to update,

Make sure you send that notification with some form of delivery confirmation. Most of us will use certified letters, but there are other methods. You just need to be able to prove the letter went out on such and such a date and it was delivered to the tenant. If you get something returned because there's no forwarding address, keep a copy of that in the tenant file so that at least you can show you did what you were supposed to do.

and keep any removed applications for at least three years after the date of removal.


There's a principle called underpromising and overdeliver. It applies in a lot of business contexts and it can apply here. Don't ever promise a unit until you have reviewed everything. The application is complete, removed, and you're ready to offer a unit in writing. Be very careful how you communicate. Make sure you are not implying that a tenant has a unit before you have had a chance to review everything.

And in fact, make sure that you state clearly no one is guaranteed a unit until that offer comes in writing, whatever your policy is for offering units. Any kind of a gray area can lead to misinterpretation. And as we know, this process is stressful for tenants. They get really excited when they think they have an apartment, and that can lead to them forgetting some details, misinterpreting what you say. So it's really important that we are.

Clearly communicating with applicants and tenants.

Remember that some other fair housing concerns are going to come into play when it comes to your wait lists. Know your LEP, limited English proficiency requirements, and your plan. Make sure you are aware of reasonable accommodations. They may come into play during the wait list process and any vowel requirements, which typically is going to come into play in the application process if you are denying somebody housing.

So you have certain information you need to provide with regard to VAWA. Know your property's specific policies and procedures as well.


So that's going to do it for today's discussion on wait lists. Thank you for joining us. And please take the opportunity to let us know anything you think would be helpful on a Tuesday tip. You can email those suggestions to us. You can email me or Mary at our email addresses that are on the screen. You can also provide that by going to the Navigate website and using the contact us feature and sending us your suggestions. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you on the next Tuesday tip.