Recertification and Clarification of Deposits

[a_queen_taraf]

Hello,

I moved into housing lottery apartment almost a year ago. I have been doing the recertification process, and suddenly I have been asked to clarify income from the previous year (2023 and not 2024). My family has sent me "gift income" last year, that I am now being asked for?

I am worried that it would disqualify me or cause issues. It exceeds 15k.

Please help.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

[BklynDee]

I believe gift income can not exceed 10K
not sure if that has changed .

[linamonroll]

Did the gift happen before of after you were approved for this unit and signed the lease?

[randomperson2]

Gift income of any amount can be treated as sporadic/nonrecurring and thus not included as regular income (the $10K limit has changed). See p. 52 of the marketing handbook. (Note that it refers to "one-time gifts," so it's possible that if you have routinely been receiving gift support from your family over an extended time period, they might try to include it.)

However, ALL income must be disclosed at the time of the application. If you disclosed what you'd received at the time you signed your final TIC (at time of lease signing, usually), you should ("should" because these agencies mess up with some frequency and it may take some sorting out) be okay. If you didn't, and if it would have disqualified you from the apartment, congratulations, you may have committed fraud on your application! They may or may not pick up on it and they may or may not do anything about it, but you did.

[a_queen_taraf]

Originally Posted by linamonroll

Did the gift happen before of after you were approved for this unit and signed the lease?

The gift was before I signed and was approved for the apartment.

[a_queen_taraf]

Originally Posted by randomperson2

Gift income of any amount can be treated as sporadic/nonrecurring and thus not included as regular income (the $10K limit has changed). See p. 52 of the marketing handbook. (Note that it refers to "one-time gifts," so it's possible that if you have routinely been receiving gift support from your family over an extended time period, they might try to include it.)

However, ALL income must be disclosed at the time of the application. If you disclosed what you'd received at the time you signed your final TIC (at time of lease signing, usually), you should ("should" because these agencies mess up with some frequency and it may take some sorting out) be okay. If you didn't, and if it would have disqualified you from the apartment, congratulations, you may have committed fraud on your application! They may or may not pick up on it and they may or may not do anything about it, but you did.

It was not a recurring payment. It was around twice each family member. I had submitted all deposits before no one inquired about them. I thought gifts are not income since they are not taxed...

[randomperson2]

It doesn't have to be taxed to be income for affordable-housing purposes. The rules are complicated.

Did you include them in your income on your application?

[a_queen_taraf]

No I did not. However, I just checked the marketing handbook and this is what it stated:

SPORADIC OR NON-RECURRING INCOME
Certain forms of income that are sporadic and non-recurring are not considered
when calculating maximum household income as they are considered temporary
in nature. Examples of sporadic or non-recurring income include one-time gifts or
lump-sum inheritance payments. All sources of income must be disclosed, but
such non-recurring income may be excluded from the income calculation.

[randomperson2]

"All sources of income must be disclosed"

That's your (potential) problem, right there. At this point, all you can do is -->be honest<-- (which doesn't mean gratuitously calling attention to your concerns, but does mean answering every single question fully and accurately and with no misleading omissions) and hope that they aren't actually scrutinizing you for this or, if they are, that they would consider the income sporadic (which is at least what it sounds like from what you said) and not count it, or, if they would argue for some reason that it was recurring, that the income wouldn't actually have disqualified you, or, if it would have, they are inclined to overlook it as an honest mistake.

I am not your lawyer!!!, this is not legal advice!!!, but I doubt that even if they got that far down the path and evicted you that they would do anything further, especially if you are fully honest during the process and don't make it worse by trying to hide things and getting caught. The rule is too ambiguous and the standard too high. So I wouldn't stay up nights worrying about that in particular. The rest of it...there's a lot of "if"s there and the main issue is that a lot of these folks are not too good at their jobs and, if for some reason there's pressure to do anti-fraud audits at this time, marginal cases could be caught up in the investigation. So I would be at least a little worried there. But assuming you've described the situation accurately here, you'll probably be okay in the end. Definitely not promising anything here, though. By not disclosing that income, you did break the rules and made a false certification on your TIC. I understand you didn't mean to deceive them, but sometimes people do get caught up even if their intentions weren't bad.

[linamonroll]

Originally Posted by a_queen_taraf

The gift was before I signed and was approved for the apartment.

Originally Posted by randomperson2

"All sources of income must be disclosed"

I agree, this maybe your problem. Un-disclosed gifts, particularly such a large gift will definitely raise fraud flags. I cannot give specific advice except you don't want to dig your hole any deeper, disclose everything and be honest as to the sources of any money coming in. Wishing you the best.