Audit of the Southeast Housing Court (SEHC)

This is a state performance audit of the Southeast Housing Court covering July 1, 2017 through March 31, 2019.

“I am pleased to provide this performance audit of the Southeast Housing Court.”

The audit looked at whether the court handled cash receipts properly and followed timing rules for eviction cases.

“In this performance audit, we examined SEHC’s activities related to the reconciliation of cash receipts and adherence to time standards for summary process (i.e., tenant eviction) cases.”

Housing Court cases can affect people’s homes, safety, landlords, tenants, and housing-related disputes.

“The Housing Court Department has jurisdiction over civil and criminal actions, including equitable relief, which involve the health, safety, or welfare of the occupants or owners of residential housing.”

If you live in the Southeast Housing Court region, this audit gives some assurance that the court’s checked cash-handling and eviction-case timing practices met the standards reviewed.

“Below is a list of our audit objectives, indicating each question we intended our audit to answer and the conclusion we reached regarding each objective.”

For both audit questions, the auditor concluded the court met the reviewed requirements.

“Does SEHC reconcile cash receipts in accordance with Sections 1, 2, and 41 of the Trial Court’s Fiscal Systems Manual?”

Because the audit reported no significant noncompliance, the report does not list required fixes or recommendations.

“Our audit revealed no significant instances of noncompliance by SEHC that must be reported under generally accepted government auditing standards.”

This was not a tiny operation: during the audit period, the court handled more than 13,000 cases and over $1.4 million in revenue.

“As shown below, SEHC received $1,418,316 in total revenue and processed 13,087 cases during our audit period.”

“Summary process” means eviction cases.

“In this performance audit, we examined SEHC’s activities related to the reconciliation of cash receipts and adherence to time standards for summary process (i.e., tenant eviction) cases.”