Mary Celone (00:06.11)
Hi everyone, welcome to another Tuesday tip. I'm Mary Celone. Today's tip comes from a request we received to review the requirements surrounding gross rent change 50059s. Specifically, who needs to sign them and what happens if it triggers a correction to another 50059.

Mary Celone (00:34.088)
So let's just start with a quick review of what a gross rent change is. A gross rent change happens when there's a revision in the unit's rent, utility allowance, or both. And this, of course, is typically happening with a rent increase, but can also happen just with a decrease in the UA. Either way, it's when there's a change in the unit rent or UA rather than a change in a specific tenant circumstances.

Mary Celone (01:05.206)
And because a gross rent change impacts tenant payments, assistance payments, or both, the process involves a gross rent certification or GR 50059 for each household. And this is where it can get a little confusing, especially if a GR coincides with another cert that was completed with the previous gross rent amounts.

But before we get there, let's start with just the basic requirements of the GR certification forms. So once you receive an approval for a gross rent change, you're putting this through into your software. And from there, either you or your software must then generate a new 50059 reflecting these changes from the gross rent change. That'll be your new gross rent, utility allowance.

And any new total tenant payment, tenant rent, or assistance payment amounts. And this is because, of course, numbers are changing on your 5.9 from whatever the previous active certification was. So we need to transmit that new 5.9 with the new numbers and reflect that information in your HAP voucher. This 50059 should be a gross rent or GR certification.

And a copy of the assigned GR59 must be provided to the tenant and must be retained in the tenant file.

Mary Celone (02:38.022)
Now, this 50059 must always be signed and dated by the owner agent. OAs will always sign and date GR 50059s. Tenants, however, are only required to sign and date the GR59 if the GR results in a change either to the tenant's rental amount or to the utility reimbursement that the tenant will receive.

Otherwise, they are not required to sign by HUDS RAGs. So for example, if I process a GR59 where there was a unit rent increase and also a change to the utility allowance, up or down, that UA is going to affect the tenant payment. So on that GR59, both the OA and tenant are required to sign a date.

But if instead, if I have a GR for an assisted unit with no utility allowance at all, the tenant portion here with an increase to the gross rent wouldn't change. It's still just their calculated amount. The assistance payment would be the amount that changes. So this GR59, the tenant would not be required to sign. The tenant's payment isn't changing, and neither is any utility reimbursement. There isn't any in this case.

But the OA still must sign and date. That is always required.

Mary Celone (04:15.324)
Now, your GR59s will be effective for the same effective date of your gross rent change. But what happens when that GR's effective day overlaps with another completed certification? And we see this situation happen a lot, especially where there are retroactive gross rent changes. So, for example, if you're processing a gross rent change.

for an approved rent increase that has an effective date of July 1, 2026. And right now it's September. So any completed certifications, ARs, IRs, move-ins, et cetera, that were effective from 7.1, which is that date, effective date of the gross rent change, from 7.1 on must now be adjusted to those gross rent change numbers.

And that has to happen through a correction to those certifications, adjusting them with the gross rent change numbers. So, in that example I just gave, if my gross rent change was effective seven, one and I'm processing it in September, it's a retroactive gross rent change. If I have a resident that had an AR effective eight one that I completed.

I am then processing with my gross rent change a correction to that 8.1AR. Now, software is going to vary in how it deals with this. Many of them will automatically just produce a correction 5.9 when you process your gross rent change. But you just need to make sure either way that one is generated so the correct information is being reported.

Mary Celone (06:05.094)
And then the biggest question here is usually who is required to sign these corrected certs? So if a correction is required due to a GR, the owner agent is still required to sign. Remember, OAs are always signing gross rent certs. But the tenant only has to sign if the tenant's payment changes on the corrected 5.9.

Which would typically occur if there's a change in the utility allowance during the gross rent change that impacted the tenant's payment. So for a correction 5.9 triggered from a gross rent change, the tenant would need to sign if there is a change to their payment. And the tenant does have 60 days to sign this 5.9.

Mary Celone (06:58.716)
I hope this helped clarify some of the ins and outs of Five Nine's for gross rent changes. But please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any additional questions with this. Or if you have any other topics you'd like to see on Navigates Tuesday Tips, we would love to hear from you. Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next week.