Sec. 10. Empowering tenants

1,168 words·~5 min read·/bill/118/s/2834/is/section-10

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The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall provide direct notification of the results of any inspection of covered property to the tenants and resident organizations, as provided in this subsection. Notification shall be provided to tenants in easy-to-understand language in the form of a written hard-copy document provided through United States mail or through electronic mail, or both, with one copy provided for the tenants of each building in the covered property, and shall include the inspection score and a detailed description of the inspection results, including any health and safety violations found and the timeline for their remediation, while ensuring tenant privacy.

The owner or manager of the covered property shall post a hard copy of the notification of the inspection results in at least one centrally located and easily-identifiable location each building of the covered property that is accessible to all tenants, which may include next to the front door, in communal space, or next to the mailboxes for tenants. Notification shall be provided— in the case of any inspection that found no severe health or safety issues, no later than 30 days after completion of the inspection; or in the case of any inspection that found severe health and safety issues, as soon as the score is final.

The notification shall include contact information, including electronic mail address, phone number, and mailing address, of the appropriate person or entity to contact should tenants have questions about the results of the inspection. Owners who fail to post the notice shall be subject to a Management and Occupancy Review. Pursuant to a request made to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary shall carry out a subsequent inspection for a covered property that has passed a previous inspection, if the following requirements are met:

The passing test score for the previous inspection for the covered property did not exceed the minimum score required to pass inspection by more than 15 percent or the most recent score for an inspection for the covered property is 15 percent or more less than any other score for the property for an inspection of the property conducted during the preceding 10-year period. A vote of tenants of the covered property was conducted on the proposition of whether the property should have passed the most recent inspection, which vote— was administered by the tenant association for the property or an independent third party; utilizes the democratic process and may have utilized an anonymous voting platform, either electronically or through paper ballots, for casting votes; and resulted in 51 percent or more of the tenants residing in the property voting against the proposition that the property should have passed the most recent inspection.

The chief executive officer of the tenants association notifies the Secretary, the project-based contract administrator for the covered property, and the owner or management of the property of the results of the vote and requests a second inspection for the covered property, which notification and request— includes a copy of the tally of the vote; does not, in verifying the 51 percent majority vote, disclose personally identifiable information of the tenants, including by their signatures; and is transmitted, both by electronic mail and by mailing a hard copy, not later than 60 days after receipt of the notification under subsection

(a)regarding the passing result of the previous inspection for the covered property. Tenants shall be notified of the score of the second inspection using the same notification criteria as apply to the first inspection and shall be provided with the contact information of the person or entity that they can contact with any questions about the second inspection. If a second inspection is conducted pursuant to a vote under paragraph

(1)and the covered property is assessed a passing score for such second inspection, and if another vote is taken that complies with the same requirements applicable under such paragraph to the first inspection, and such vote results in 51 percent or more of the tenants residing in the property voting against the proposition that the property should have passed the second inspection, the Secretary shall provide a tenant association representative an opportunity for mediation with the building owner and the project-based contractor administrator regarding continuing issues and inspection findings and the process for a Management and Occupancy Review shall begin concurrently. The mediation shall be conducted within 180 days of the second inspection. Commencing not later 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall— undertake ongoing activities to advertise the availability and telephone number of the Multifamily Housing Complaint Line of the Multifamily Housing Clearinghouse; periodically provide tenants of covered property, through the website of the Department and otherwise, as the Secretary considers appropriate, with information about what happens when they call the complaint line; provide sufficient staff for the complaint line to ensure that the complaint line is sufficiently staffed for a minimum of 12 hours each day and so that the waiting time to speak live to an employee of the Department does not exceed 15 minutes on average as measured over a given one-week period; ensure that the complaint line offers tenants of covered properties intake for health and safety issues at such properties; ensure that upon calling the complaint line, a tenant of a covered property is first informed of how to contact the project-based contract administrator for the property to discuss the issue the tenant called about, and if the tenant has previously contacted such administrator or does not wish to involve such administrator, the person answering the call on the complaint line is capable of providing assistance for the tenant directly or can intake tenant information to assist with the request; ensure that if the complaint line has received calls within any 60-day period from tenants of a covered property representing 15 percent or more of the dwelling units in the property, the appropriate regional office of the Department shall be notified; ensure that if within three months after the notification of the appropriate regional office of the Department, the tenant hotline has received any additional calls from tenants of the same covered property, the headquarters office of the Department shall be notified; and provide availability of translation services for the complaint line. For purposes of this section, the term covered property means a multifamily housing property that is subject to inspection by the Real Estate Assessment Center of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall update inspection procedures and requirements to ensure that tenants of covered properties have at least 7 days of advance notice of when their building will be inspected. In the advance notice of inspection, tenants shall be provided the opportunity to inform the Department of Housing and Urban Development or inspectors, or both, of specific issues regarding the unit or building.