The Management and Occupancy Review (MOR) is conducted as a part of the US Department of Housing and Urban 
Development’s (HUD) regulatory oversight. MOR is HUD’s key tool for monitoring how properly a Section 8 property is attaining their goals. MOR’s are needed to make sure that the HUD’s multifamily housing programs are regulated as required by identifying the flaws to eliminate waste, fraud and mismanagement.
As MOR is returning this year, there are many questions that come up, some of them are, will the reviews be the same? Are things going to be different? How to prepare for it? Suppose you get a notice today that you will be having an MOR in two weeks, how will you react? Well, after the initial shock and surprise that you will be in, what steps will you take to be ready? Everyone has the best intentions of maintaining one’s records and files at a very decent level; however, issues happen, problems arise and then there are some errors.
In the previous 4 years, you might have been regularly auditing your files, updating and reviewing your procedures and policies, keeping your EIV (Enterprise Income Verification) manual updated, updating your manuals as required by looking at each one of them. In keeping your EIV manual updated, you have to look whether you have kept all the updates on your 6 months renewals, whether all the reports have been printed?, whether you have dealt with the inconsistencies? And whether you have taken an EIV/TRACS 202d class?
Also, HUD would like you and your staff to attend Fair Housing class annually. These are some of the questions that you need to ask yourself. As whenever a reviewer does the MOR, he or she is not just looking at your files. Prior to coming to your property, the reviewer will most probably do a desk review. They have always been able to get information from your data; however, at present they can get even more. They can look at what you have done and what you have not.
After that there is an onsite review, which consists of file, reviewing of your waiting list and other parts of your day to day operations. Also, it is highly possible that the review may also include your transactions all the way back since your previous MOR, and not just the previous year.
You can also pull up your previous MOR, even if it was four year before, and identify areas where you might need improvement so that your property meets the HUD requirements. Preparations for a MOR also include maintaining related documents, EIV documentation, resident application and other occupancy documents.
To get more detailed inputs, join this session by expert speaker Andrea Champine on the 2016 Management and Occupancy Review to get the guidance that you need to avoid common MOR findings and provide you with confidence to achieve a good rating. This session will surely put you on the right path to ensuring your property is MOR-ready.
