Section 8 landlord may face felony charges

[Jose Garcia]

good evening everyone! 

                 I have a question which I was asked and since I'm not a lawyer or have experience this maybe someone on BP has.

                  Tenant been in the property since 2009. She signed a one yr lease at the sum of 1300 after that lease has expired the tenant became a Sec 8 tenant  (I believe during the year lease) then went month to month. Now the trickey part is according to Sec 8, the tenant was allowed 1000.00 for property tenant paid 600 and sec 8 paid the 400. The issue is the property manager was still charging 1300 which it's more than sec 8 approved. Tenant signed a contract with the property manager stating she would pay 1300 now in my opinion that's illegal on both parties. Fast fwd 5 yrs later tenant has moved out. Tenant has late fees dating for over a year and now is pursuing the deposit.  Tenant basically told the owner if they dont refund the deposit they would report to sec 8 that they were paying 1300 vice the 1000 like sec 8 approved.  I believe it's a felony but I'm not a lawyer

[Mark Ainley]

It may not be a felony but it is a no no to HUD. You are only supposed to collect the HAP total and no side deals. A landlord could be kicked out of the program for good if HUD has proof to do so and they take it serious. Now I see people accept the $1000 and turn around and "rent the garage" for $200 per month or "rent the appliances" which is legal so long as the garage are appliances are not included amenities on the HAP contract.

Side deals like this story are tough to enforce especially cause you can't call section 8 on them and per your contract with section 8 you are getting paid the contract amount so u can't evict them. 

The security deposit can't be too much so I would advice give it back to avoid a larger long drawn out issue.