Section 8 Tenants

Tez – US housing assistance, bit like NRAS for dero’s.

Cheers Ivan

Hey Lauriek
I have a section 8 tenant in the US. Ideally you need to make sure you back to back any agreements where you have more than one party involved. I would believe the tenancy agreement would be the one most enforceable regarding your property. But you are asking about legally binding, so you should contact your local US attorney to find out. I can recommend two in the US if you do not have one, but the question is do you want to invest more money in litigation costs. Water and sewer are not a lot and if they believe they are not responsible for it on renewal you add this on to the rent or you do not renew and lease to someone else who will take those bills on. Quite strange for your tenant to not be responsible for water and sewer for a residential property.

I hope this has helped in some way.

Steve

Nigel Kibel wrote:

A lot of people like section 8 housing. However I have also heard my share of horror stories as well. Because this is Federal scheme they tend to be very pro tenent. States like texas and Florida end to be more pro landlord plus the nature of section 8 tenants mean they are often problematic.

A few tips about Section 8 tenants and the Housing Authority (specifically Kansas City, MO):

– Tenants are not screened by the Housing Authority for criminal or prior housing history – only the requirements for (lack of) income need to be satisfied. If your Manager is not undertaking additional screening, you’re likely to end up with a nightmare.

– Rents are determined by the Housing Authority, based on what they consider to be “market rates”. This means that even if you advertise a house for (say) $850 per month, the HA will do a survey of the area and determine what the reasonable rent should be. The HAP contract amount could end up being $700 per month, potentially destroying your ROI calculations

– Annual funding for the Housing Authority Program is finite, which limits intake of new Section 8 applicants and forces the Housing Authority to budget. This manifests as the HA reducing rents (per above), but also makes property qualification increasingly difficult. The idea is that properties that are offered to Section 8 tenants need to satisfy a number of criteria constituting “affordable housing”. Inspectors (employed by the Housing Authority) have to sign off on a particular property before it can qualify for the program. Landlords only get two chances at passing an inspection, and often small things (like a stairway banister that has not been repainted properly) will fail the Inspection. The more items that are identified by the Inspectors, the greater the cost of getting the house qualified.

– If a Section 8 tenant gets removed from the program (for whatever reason), the payments stop. The tenant, however, doesn’t necessarily move out, so an eviction process needs to be started. This takes time, which means months without rent, legal fees, (typically) an angry occupant completely damaging the property, and ultimately trying to recover this money from an individual that doesn’t have an income.

Oh yes, and let’s consider the whole paradigm of renting to someone without a job ..

Not a big fan of Section 8, myself.