It’s official. All TRACS submissions must now be in the 202B format. Be sure
that you have applied your 202B update and you have followed your vendor’s
instructions for ensuring that the TRACS files are sent in 202B format. TRACS
will reject files submitted in the 201B format. Failure to comply subjects the
property to late payments.
As with all new releases, there have been a few minor issues, so we strongly
recommend close monitoring of the voucher responses. Last week, there were
reports of vouchers being rejected because of the way information was verified
by TRACS. HUD’s development team has resolved the issue and now vouchers should
be recorded by TRACS with no problems. However, if you submitted your files to
HUD before December 7, be sure to monitor your TRACS responses to make sure that
the voucher was accepted by TRACS.
If you have access to Secure Systems and TRACS, you can check to see that the voucher was received. Just access the voucher query and check to make sure the most recent voucher is shown. Every owner/agent should have someone who can access this data. If you do not, we have developed a set of instructions called “How to Access and Use TASS and TRACS”. You can download a copy of this document at http://www.rbdnow.com/guidebooks.htm
New TRACS Multi-Family Move-Out Request Form
HUD has posted a new Move-Out Request Form on their web site. http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/mfh/trx/trxdocs.cfm The purpose of this form is to request a HUD initiated move-out. This form is to only be used if submitting a MAT40 (Move-out) from your site is not possible. You may not use this form to move a tenant from one unit and into another. This move-out process is performed using the tenants Social Security Number and current contract number. It does not account for the unit number. This form also does not correct Unit Transfer issues.
The TRACS Online Secure Systems webpage contains all tenant information for up to 15 months. For all issues related to Multiple Occupancy please check the Multiple Occupancy Report available at TRACS Online Secure Systems webpage or contact the Multi-Family Helpdesk. If your property has a PBCA or CA, you must secure their approval prior to submitting this request. Once the request has been received an email will be sent to the PBCA/CA for confirmation. A return email must be received from the PBCA/CA confirming acknowledgement and approval of the request.
In their continued effort to provide up to date information about things that affect the income calculation, HUD has provided new information about the Medicare Drug Coverage. The following documents have been added to the RHIIP web site:
Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage Presentation
2005 National Medicare & You Training Program Presentation
Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage and HUD
Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage And Other Federal Means-Tested Programs
Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage And Food Stamps
You can access the Rental Housing Integrity Improvement Project web site at http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/mfh/rhiip/mfhrhiip.cfm
We have posted the TRACS Meeting Notes from the October Meeting. Thanks to Cela Toon of RealPage, Inc. www.realpage.com and Jed Graef of IPM Software (www.ipm-software.net) for their assistance in getting this information together. The notes can be found on our web site at www.rbdnow.com/hudannouncements.htm.
Thanks to J.R. Reeves at HUDBilling http://www.hudbilling.com/index.htm for providing us with the 50059 in multiple formats. You can find the 50059 in PDF, Word and Rich Text Format (RTF) formats on our web site at http://rbdnow.com/noticesforms.htm.
For those of you who have attended the income class, thank you for your continued support. There have been several requests for the Sample Zero Income Form discussed in the class (this is not a HUD approved document). We have posted a Word version of this form on our web site at http://rbdnow.com/noticesforms.htm. Those interested in implementing this form, be sure to have it reviewed by management and by legal counsel before you start to use it. In addition, for those of you reporting to Contract Administrators (CA) or Performance Based Contract Administrators (PBCA), you may want to send them a copy of your version of the form so they can add input or make comments.
Keep in mind that the handbook provides you with latitude to continually investigate claims of zero income. See Appendix 3 – Acceptable forms of verification
|
Zero Income. |
· Applicant/Tenant self-certifies to zero income. |
· Owners may require applicant/tenant to sign verification release of information forms for state, local, and federal benefits programs, as well as the HUD 9887 and HUD 9887-A.
·
Owners may require the tenant to
re-verify zero income status at least every 90 days. |
Instructions for downloading the TRACS Queries into an Excel format have also been posted http://rbdnow.com/noticesforms.htm . These instructions provide specific steps to download the Certification Query to Excel, but the same premise can be used to download the information in the voucher query, the certifications with discrepancy query and other queries available in TRACS. This is an especially good tool to use to monitor site activity and to eliminate differences between the information in your site software and the information in TRACS.
During the last TRACS Meeting in Washington, DC, RBD delivered a presentation addressing the current HUD recommended to correct HQ terminations when annual certifications have not been properly recorded in TRACS. Instructions explaining how to identify those households and how to fix the HQ termination have been posted http://rbdnow.com/noticesforms.htm.
Thanks to all of you who responded to our recent survey. Congratulations to Theresa Trail of Menlo Park Apartments in Tucson, AZ. She was the grand prize winner of the iPod NANO. We appreciate all the input and will be prioritizing development of new offerings based on your responses. In addition, thank you all for the kind comments regarding the services we deliver. We strive to offer you products and services to make your job easier and will continue to do so in the future.
At RBD, we believe that training begins in the classroom, but continued support of the students is necessary to facilitate true understanding of the topics discussed. RBD not only provides top-notch instructor-led training, but we provide continued email support of training topics to our students, free of charge. Just email us at info@rbdnow.com. We might not be able to answer every question, but we’ll sure give it a shot!!
We look forward to seeing you and your associates at RBD classes in one of the following cities. Visit our web site at www.rbdnow.com/classes.htm for additional information or to register. We always love to hear from you, so if you have a specific question about training, please give our training coordinator, Larue, a call. Her number is (770) 426-0577.