Section 8 success story

[Jason Barnett]

I posted here a few weeks ago about a problem that I was having with a Section 8 tenant. For those that don't know my situation, here it was:

I had mold damage in an apartment and a tenant that had complained to the health department about it (2 days after she notified me of the problem!). I read the complaint letter from the health department and I agreed to do everything that was asked of me (and then some).

During this time my tenant harassed me saying that I didn't care about her health and that she wanted to move out of the apartment. She called Section 8 several times and asked them if they could break the lease, but they said the only way out was for me to agree to let the tenant go. However mad this women made me, she had a financial obligation (a lease) and I refused to break the lease because it is not easy to get new tenants this time of year.

The tenant made several trips to doctors and had the doctors write letters to me declaring she should not be around mold. Yet I never agreed to break her contract all this time because I agreed to clean up all of the mold problems.

Then last Friday I received a phone call; it was the Deputy Director of the local Section 8 office. We spoke for some time over this issue and I reiterated that I had cleaning crews ready to go and that I would do everything that the health department recommended. At this point the Deputy Director told me, "Well we want her out of the apartment and we are willing to pay rent on the apartment if you are willing to break the lease." After some negotiation we agreed in principle that Section 8 would give me everything that they owed to me through the end of this month and they would also give me 4 months' worth of rent. Yesterday I received the paperwork for this agreement and the rest is history.

The moral of this story? Know your rights and keep your cool no matter what a tenant says to you. People can say whatever they want, but legal documents are binding. In my case I was able to get rid of a PROBLEM TENANT (no prior history though... hmmm....) and I actually made money off of the deal. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!!!