My housing authority sent the wrong amount for three months before anyone caught it

Reconciling monthly not quarterly saved me $2,100 in Columbus two years ago, same drift, different direction, they shorted me.

Honestly the premise that quarterly is sufficient is the part I'd push back on. Month by month against the HAP contract is the only way to catch a drift before it compounds, and three months of $150 overpayments is already $450 sitting in a grey zone where you're trying to prove intent. I'd rather catch it at month one and make one phone call than three months and six weeks of documentation hell. My understanding from reading through other people's experiences on here is that Columbus Metro Housing Authority in particular has had staffing turnover and that creates more clerical error risk, not less, so the exposure is probably higher there than in a smaller authority. I don't have units yet but I've already built my tracking spreadsheet to flag any variance over $10 from the contract amount as a line item I have to sign off on manually before I'll consider it clean.

Six weeks to get written confirmation of their own mistake is about right, unfortunately. The one thing I have never seen work is relying on a verbal "you're fine" from your contact, because it evaporates the second a different person touches your file. Then you're explaining the whole thing from scratch to someone who has no idea what their colleague told you three weeks ago, and now you look like the problem.

The thing that jumps out is you got written confirmation eventually, but what exactly did it say. Because "no big deal, send it back" from a phone contact and an actual written clearance from someone with authority to issue it are not the same thing, and 14 months in you don't yet know what this authority looks like when they decide something IS a big deal. I'd want that letter or email somewhere you can find it in 2027 when the contact who told you it was fine has left and someone new is auditing the file. Columbus housing authority specifically has had turnover issues from what I've read in a couple landlord groups. The $150 monthly delta is almost exactly what I'd expect from a payment code getting transposed at entry, which means it could happen again on either side, and if it runs the other way you're the one chasing them. Do you know yet whether the error originated in the system or was a manual entry?

The overage being $150/month is almost the perfect amount to miss, small enough that it doesn't feel wrong but it compounds. Three months gets you $450 sitting in your account that technically belongs to the authority, and if they'd caught it on their end first the narrative flips fast regardless of who made the error.

What I'd actually push for now is a copy of the HAP contract amendment schedule going back to your start date, not just the current contract, because Columbus CHA has had instances where a unit's payment standard got updated in their system mid-year and the landlord was never formally notified. The drift is baked in before you ever see a check.