Help Non-Paying Tenant Transition Into Section 8 Eligibility?

[Isadore Nelson]

I recently acquired a property with an existing tenant who has been living there for about four years. The tenant was paying rent to the previous owner but hasn't been paying rent for a while since the property was foreclosed and sold to the bank. She’s currently not paying rent, and while she has some health issues and no stable income, she’s been communicative and open to general talks, with a possible option to vacate through a cash-for-keys arrangement, though this might take around six weeks and some hard work.

I plan to rehab the property and eventually rent it out, potentially to a Section 8 tenant. My question is: could the current tenant (age 59) remain in the property if she becomes eligible for Section 8 assistance? How feasible would it be to transition her to Section 8, and how long could this process take in Brooklyn, NY?

[Greg M.]

Sorry to be so harsh, but she sounds like a scammer and you sound like a sucker. 

She was paying rent when there was a landlord that would file for eviction. Then as a REO property, she knows that she can slip through the system for a long time and she's stops paying rent to the bank. New landlord and she's still not paying rent probably because she knows she has a lot of time before you get everything together (proof of non-payment, copies of lease, etc), before you can evict her. However, if you pay her, she will leave. And you think that will take 6 weeks + hard work. 😂 Cash for keys can be done in an afternoon.

She's not your friend and you're not her caseworker. Get an attorney, have them file the eviction and be done with it. She will probably game the system for the next 6-12 months, but that's what you get buying a property with a non-paying tenant in place, in an anti-landlord city. 

This is a business. Run it like a business.