| REAC Inspection Appeals | ||
| Can you help me get started with an appeal? (Goes to a different page) | ||
| top links bring you back > | top | |
| What can I appeal? | ||
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Non-Existent Defects |
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| What can I NOT appeal? | ||
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Repairs Made After Inspection |
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| Who submits the appeal? | ||
| Special Considerations for Public Housing | ||
| How Long does an Appeal Take? | top | |
| How Will We be Notified of the Result? | ||
| What if My Appeal is Rejected? | ||
| Can I Appeal in Advance? (Look for the highlighted term Pre Data Base Adjustment near the bottom of the page this links to) | ||
| What Can Be Appealed? | ||
| Technical Reviews - 30 Day Delivery Deadline (based on scoring report release date) | ||
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Non-Existent Deficiencies |
Deficiencies that are based on a technical error - the inspector cited the defect under the wrong Inspectable Area, Inspectable Item, or Deficiency name. Does not include questions of Level of Severity. Deficiencies that involve a misunderstanding by the inspector - the inspector did not test something properly, cited exposed wires for low voltage wires, cited a blocked exit for a window was not designed to serve as an exit, and many other examples. < click to go to example page | |
| Building or Unit Count Errors |
This is a rare appeal based on an improperly compiled building profile in which the number of buildings and/or units is reported inaccurately. If serious enough to result in an adjustment of the score, this would normally mean that the inspection is deemed invalid and must be done over. | |
| Data Base Adjustment - 45 Day Delivery Deadline (based on scoring report release date) | ||
| Ownership Issues | Deficiencies applied to elements not
under the ownership and/or control of the property owner - i.e. a
deficiency on a fence, sidewalk, driveway, or other item owned by the
city or a neighboring property - does not apply to resident owned items
in Units Go to Examples |
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| Conditions Beyond the Control of the Owner | Deficiencies involving conditions caused
by severe weather, vandalism, accident, criminal activity within a too
short a period before the inspection to allow the owner to reasonably
address them. These would often involve a police report or an
insurance claim as a supporting document. In lieu of these
documents, it might include an official government issued weather report
that has been interpreted by an expert party providing a professional
opinion saying that a condition has been caused by such a weather event.
Reports from a private security agency may be valuable where a police
report is not available. This type of appeal can also include
breach of contract, where a contractor fails to perform, and can include
conditions caused by delays in the performance of a contract, where the
wrong parts are ordered and must be re-ordered, etc. Go to Examples |
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| Local Conditions and Exceptions | Deficiencies involving conditions that
are specifically allowable under local code and/or pre-existing
conditions that do not conform to the UPCS protocol. Items can
sometimes be appealed on the basis that they are not prohibited by local
code, but REAC has tightened up on granting these in recent years,
raising the bar so that we must often prove a condition is specifically
allowed. "Pre-existing conditions" suggests that conditions that
can be said to be "grand-fathered" are also appealable, but this
requires a very sophisticated argument for which it will almost
certainly require a very technical explanation by an architect or
engineer, or a letter signed by a local code official. Go to Examples |
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| Modernization Work in Progress | Often referred to as "work in progress," this is more
complicated than simply showing that repair work was scheduled or
contracted. REAC often rejects such arguments if the work in
question involves small dollar amounts or work that could be argued to
be "routine maintenance." This type of appeal nearly always
requires that such work is formally contracted with a licensed third
party whose capabilities are greater than an in-house maintenance staff.
Contracts will be scrutinized for proper legal form and execution.
They must be legally binding on both the property and the contractor,
and must predate the inspection. Reviewers may reject such an
appeal if there is any technical error in the contract, or if it lacks
proper signatures and titles indicating that the signers are authorized
to enter into the legal agreement on behalf of the property and the
contractor. These require an adequate description of the scope of
work and projected commencement and completion dates. These must
clearly show that they apply to the deficiencies being appealed, by
mentioning the specific buildings, areas, or units where work is being
done. Go to Examples |
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| What CANNOT Be Appealed? | ||
| Repairs Made After Inspection | Appeals are not granted on the basis of a deficiency
simply having been repaired, period. There is no exception. This rule is often twisted (in the author's opinion) to reject a legitimate appeal based on a sound and well documented argument if the appeal happens to mention that a condition has been repaired. This has been justified in the past "because the original condition could no longer be verified if REAC wished to send someone to look at it." It is highly recommended that all appeals omit any mention of a repair having been made, even if it was an EH&S defect requiring that a repair be reported to the HUD Field Office. We generally require third party experts who sign letters used as evidence in an appeal to remove any statement they might inadvertently add that indicates a repair has been made or a condition has been altered. "Don't provide more information than needed." |
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| Conditions Caused by Residents | With a few well documented exceptions, damage done by residents (or anyone else for that matter) cannot be appealed simply on the basis that "we can't control what the residents do." Exceptions would be the issues spelled out in the Compilation Bulletin, like sharp edges on resident owned items in a unit and resident items stored in the oven. Even these are not entirely excused - they are to be cited as "Other Hazards," which is a non-scoring issue. Another exception would be damage caused by a contractor in the course of completing work under contract - this would include rutting caused by contractor equipment (if the contract specifies that they will repair any such damage.) | |
| "Change of Status" - Can We Still Appeal if it does not Significantly Change the Score? | ||
| There is a long-standing MYTH that an appeal will not be considered by REAC if it does not raise the score so that it "changes the status" so that it tops a threshold like 60, 80, or 90. This is based on a real statement in REAC's instructions that says REAC will not consider appeals that do not change the status of the property - but it does NOT mean that an appeal will be rejected simply because the score does not change from failing to passing, or that it does not "move up" from sub-80 to 80-plus or sub-90 to 90-plus. | ||
| Any change in the score is a "change of status." This is particularly true in Public Housing, where the over PHAs score of an agency is based on a unit weighted average of the scores of all the Housing Authority's AMPs. Particularly now that Public Housing PHAs score may be based on an amalgam of scores from different years, due to some properties "skipping" inspections and some properties not "skipping." Every fraction of a point might make a difference in the overall PHAs score in the current year or some coming year. | top | |
| So, REAC is not obligated to review appeals that do not change the status of the property - what does that mean? Frankly, we don't know. We have never seen an appeal rejected on this basis, but we can only assume that it means they could reject an appeal that does not change the score AND does not negate the record of a "health and safety" condition. Even the elimination of a non-scoring defect that results in the improper reporting of a "non-life threatening" or "life threatening" health and safety issue would change the "status." I.e. A score might change from 75c*, meaning that there was at least one life threatening condition and at least one inoperable smoke detector to a score of 75a*, meaning that there was no life threatening condition. | ||
| What Should We NOT Bother to Appeal? | ||
| There is no reason we can think of to appeal any
"FHEO-UFAS" issue. These are non-scoring and are considered
"survey items" by REAC. REAC's standards for citing FHEO-UFAS
issues are very vague, and non-scoring - and REAC does not require the
property to address these defects. It is entirely possible that
the great majority of FHEO-UFAS issues cited during REAC inspections are
not truly defects at all, because these are cited even when a building
or unit is not officially subject to any FHEO-UFAS requirements.
Just to be clear - it IS the property owner/manager's responsibility to KNOW what your FHEO-UFAS requirements are, and to comply with them. A REAC inspection report, however, is not a reliable indicator that a property is non-compliant. |
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| There is no reason to appeal any other non-scoring item - like smoke detector issues, "other hazard" issues, and trip hazards indoors - UNLESS the owner or management entity simply wishes to have the suggestion that a hazardous condition existed stricken from the record. This is a legitimate concern, and an owner or management entity may have compelling reasons other than the REAC score for wishing to remove these from the record. These reasons are outside the scope of this discussion, as we cannot anticipate or advise on the legalities that may be at the root of this desire. | ||
| There are also situations where an appeal is useless, because so there are so many defects, that an Inspectable Area like the Building Systems of a given building, or an individual unit's score is "in the hole." To see an example of when an appeal is useless because we are "in the hole," go to this page. < click it | ||
| Who Submits the Appeal? | ||
| When you work with us on an appeal, we submit it for you, but it lists you or one of your associates as the contact. So, we are submitting it on your behalf - technically, it is your appeal. We do not have the right to submit an appeal unless we are doing it as your agent. We will mail the appeal for you and will provide you with a tracking number. You are responsible for checking for a delivery receipt on the US Postal Service web page, and you are responsible for making and keeping a copy of the delivery receipt. | ||
| Special Considerations for Housing Authorities | ||
| Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) are subject to the same deadlines as other organizations. If you are hearing that the deadlines are 15 and 30 days rather than 30 and 45 days, you are working with information that is several years out-of-date. | ||
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| Contact Person | IMPORTANT: Data Base Adjustments for PHAs are submitted to your HUD Field Office. Please provide us with your contact person at your Field Office so the DBA can be addressed to that specific person. | |
| Cover Letter | Cover letters are not necessary for appeals that are submitted directly to REAC. We strongly recommend that you create a cover letter for attachment to appeals that are submitted to your Field Office, just to make sure the recipient realizes it is their responsibility to process the appeal in a timely manner. | |
| How Long does an Appeal Take? | ||
| The compilation and submission of a normal appeal takes a few weeks - but we must complete and submit it by the deadlines. | ||
| The time for processing of the appeal by REAC and/or your HUD Field Office varies significantly. Expect at least 30 days for Field Office processing. Appeals processed by REAC can be complete in as little as a week, but some have taken 30 to 90 days. | ||
| How Will We be Notified of the Result? | ||
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| Notification will be sent by email to the person listed in HUD's database as your primary contact and should also be sent to the person listed as the contact on the appeal. The Inspection Group is not normally notified of the result. We do not normally list anyone at The Inspection Group as the contact, because REAC is not obligated to communicate with us unless there is clear authorization by the owner. We therefore avoid confusion by insisting that an agent of the owner or management company be listed as contact on the appeal. | ||
| What If My Appeal is Rejected? | ||
| During the process of creating your appeal, we will advise you that no appeal is ever guaranteed to win. We will give you an idea of how likely it is that your appeal will be approved or declined - but there are many factors, including simple human error and prejudice in the approval or denial of an appeal. We can't predict the outcome, even when we feel that an appeal is "solid gold," like one backed with a strong evidence statement from a code official, fire marshal, or engineer. | ||
| If your appeal is denied, it may be necessary to simply accept it and to accept your initial REAC score. | ||
| We never guarantee the success of any appeal - period. We recommend in most cases that a rejected appeal is to be considered "final judgment," and that you should accept the outcome. | ||
| We can, in some cases, challenge the denial of an appeal - but we reserve the right to do so as a courtesy, or to charge an additional fee if we believe the rejection to be final. | ||
| If we feel very strongly that an appeal has been unjustly denied, we will likely submit a complaint to supervisory personnel at no charge to the client. We do this only when we feel that the rejection is clearly unfair. Complaints of this sort take a long time - we have seen cases where a rejected appeal has been reversed in our client's favor, but it has taken a month or two. Over the years, we have had an appeal rejection reversed a full nine months after it was rejected. Another one took a full year. | top | |
| Our track record is very good. We win the majority of appeals that we submit. We try very hard to avoid submitting appeals that have little chance of winning, but sometimes we have a client whose need to win an appeal is very urgent. In such cases, we will submit an appeal that we believe is weak - but we will advise the client that the effort is likely to be futile. | ||
| Appeals are often the client's "last chance." Nobody should rely more heavily on an appeal than on proper preparation prior to their REAC inspection. | ||