Township of Franklin, NJ Administrative Agent

Conducting an outreach process to affirmatively market affordable housing units in accordance with the Affirmative Marketing Plan of the Township of Franklin and the provisions of N.J.A.C. 5:80-26.15; and

Providing counseling or contracting to provide counseling services to low- and moderate-income applicants on subjects such as budgeting, credit issues, mortgage qualification, rental lease requirements, and landlord/tenant law.

Notifying (which notification may be by email) the following entities of the availability of affordable housing units in the Township of Franklin and providing them with copies of or links to application forms: Fair Share Housing Center, the New Jersey State Conference of the NAACP, the Latino Action Network, NORWESCAP, the Supportive Housing Association, the Central Jersey Housing Resource Center and the New Jersey Housing Resource Center.

Household certification:

Soliciting, scheduling, conducting and following up on interviews with interested households;

Conducting interviews and obtaining sufficient documentation of gross income and assets upon which to base a determination of income eligibility for a low- or moderate-income unit;

Providing written notification to each applicant as to the determination of eligibility or noneligibility;

Requiring that all certified applicants for restricted units execute a certificate substantially in the form, as applicable, of either the ownership or rental certificates set forth in Appendices J and K of N.J.A.C. 5:80-26.1 et seq.;

(5)

Creating and maintaining a referral list of eligible applicant households living in the housing region and eligible applicant households with members working in the housing region where the units are located;

(6)

Employing a random selection process as provided in the Affirmative Marketing Plan of the Township of Franklin when referring households for certification to affordable units; and

Affordability controls:

Furnishing to attorneys or closing agents forms of deed restrictions and mortgages for recording at the time of conveyance of title of each restricted unit;

Creating and maintaining a file on each restricted unit for its control period, including the recorded deed with restrictions, recorded mortgage and note, as appropriate;

Ensuring that the removal of the deed restrictions and cancellation of the mortgage note are effectuated and properly filed with the Hunterdon County Register of Deeds or Hunterdon County Clerk's office after the termination of the affordability controls for each restricted unit;

Communicating with lenders regarding foreclosures; and

(5)

Ensuring the issuance of continuing certificates of occupancy or certifications pursuant to N.J.A.C. 5:80-26.10.

Resales and rerentals:

Instituting and maintaining an effective means of communicating information between owners and the administrative agent regarding the availability of restricted units for resale or rerental; and

Instituting and maintaining an effective means of communicating information to low- (or very-low-) and moderate-income households regarding the availability of restricted units for resale or rerental.

Processing requests from unit owners:

Reviewing and approving requests for determination from owners of restricted units who wish to take out home equity loans or refinance during the term of their ownership that the amount of indebtedness to be incurred will not violate the terms of this chapter;

Reviewing and approving requests to increase sales prices from owners of restricted units who wish to make capital improvements to the units that would affect the selling price, such authorizations to be limited to those improvements resulting in additional bedrooms or bathrooms and the depreciated cost of central air conditioning systems;

Notifying the municipality of an owner's intent to sell a restricted unit; and

Making determinations on requests by owners of restricted units for hardship waivers.

Enforcement:

Securing annually from the municipality a list of all affordable housing units for which tax bills are mailed to absentee owners, and notifying all such owners that they must either move back to their unit or sell it;

Securing from all developers and sponsors of restricted units, at the earliest point of contact in the processing of the project or development, written acknowledgement of the requirement that no restricted unit can be offered, or in any other way committed, to any person, other than a household duly certified to the unit by the administrative agent;

Posting annually, in all rental properties (including two-family homes), a notice as to the maximum permitted rent together with the telephone number of the administrative agent where complaints of excess rent or other charges can be made;

Sending annual mailings to all owners of affordable dwelling units, reminding them of the notices and requirements outlined in N.J.A.C. 5:80-26.18(d)4;

(5)

Establishing a program for diverting unlawful rent payments to the municipality's Affordable Housing Trust Fund; and

(6)

Creating and publishing a written operating manual for each affordable housing program administered by the administrative agent, to be approved by the Township Committee and the Court, setting forth procedures for administering the affordability controls.

Additional responsibilities:

The administrative agent shall have the authority to take all actions necessary and appropriate to carry out its responsibilities hereunder.

The administrative agent shall prepare monitoring reports for submission to the Municipal Housing Liaison in time to meet the Court-approved monitoring and reporting requirements in accordance with the deadlines set forth in this chapter.