The Ohio Housing Finance Agency, Office of Program Compliance, has revised its policies surrounding both Modifications to Restrictive Covenants as well as Qualified Contract Requests. Both policy revisions became effective on March 5.
Restrictive Covenants
Changes to Restrictive Covenant Modifications include:
- No longer accepting requests for multifamily covenant releases
- Simplified submission requirements for the requests
- Modification requests cannot alter the applicable fraction
- Further defined and clarified the annual follow-up requirements for approved modifications
- Provided additional clarity regarding post release requirements
- Lease Purchase sales are now conveyed through Partial Releases.
- Lease Purchase sales must be submitted through the online sale form.
- Updated the options available to owners if a lease purchase unit is not sold to qualified existing tenant
Qualified Contracts
The Qualified Contract policy outlines the submission requirements, review process and OHFA’s responsibility for Qualified Contract Requests. Starting with allocations after 1995, all owners waived the right to a qualified contract in new allocations. Owners should review the Restrictive Covenant, Placed in Service Date, 8609s and respective Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) to determine whether the development is eligible for a qualified contract request.
